LANCASTER, Pa. – Penn College overcame a 41-29 halftime deficit to pull within three late in the second, but couldn't get any closer in a 77-73 setback to Lancaster Bible in the first round of the North Eastern Athletic Conference men's basketball playoffs Tuesday.
Penn College concluded its season at 7-19, while the Chargers improved to 13-13 and advanced to Friday's NEAC Final Four.
How it happened: The opening 17 minutes of the game featured five ties and four lead changes as the teams battled back-and-forth. The Wildcats took its largest lead, 11-6, on Elijah Vazquez' three with 16:29 left in the first. Fred Young's long ball five minutes later maintained an 18-14 advantage for Penn College, before LBC used a 10-1 run to lead 24-19 with 8:04 before the break. The Wildcats rallied to even the game at 27 on a pair of Damon Kreider free throws with 4:03 on the lock, but LBC finished the half with 14-2 run to take a 41-29 lead at the break.
The Chargers held a double-digit lead for the opening six minutes of the second, including a 55-40 lead, before Penn College answered with an 11-0 run – including five points from Kreider – to get within four, 55-51 with 11:38 left in the game. The Chargers built their lead to 67-50 with 4:33 left in the game but the Wildcats got within three, 67-64, on five-straight points by Vazquez, and a Sosa layup with 2:38 left on clock made it 69-66. LBC netted six straight points to put the game out of reach.
Inside the box: Sosa scored a game-high 27 points for Penn College, on 12 of 20 from floor, and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Vazquez finished with 23 points. Carson Garvis also finished with a team-high seven rebounds.
Jordan Shewbridge led Bible with 16 points, while three other Chargers finished in double-figures.
Outside the box: "This was a great season and I couldn't be more proud of this group of young men. They came together as a team, fought through adversity and played some very good basketball along the way," Penn College coach Geoff Hensley. "We competed with the very best teams in our conference, advanced to the post-season tournament for the first time in program history and laid the foundation for future years to build upon success and win championships.
"Today was a great basketball game. Lancaster Bible is a very good team and we competed with them until the very end. We didn't finish the first half very well by turning the ball over and letting them get some extra points. But we collected ourselves at halftime and made some adjustments. Then the guys came out with a great sense of urgency in the second half and kept chipping away at the lead. We got the lead down to 3-points, but just couldn't get over that hump.
"Ben and a Elijah set the tone for the game with their offense and being aggressive to get us some early baskets. We rotated multiple defenders on their leading scorer, Jordan Shewbridge, who all did a good job tiring him out and making him earn every basket he got. We needed to do a better job rebounding but I thought we did a great job overall defensively limiting them to shoot under 42% from the floor.
"Our seniors have so much to be proud of for everything they did to elevate this program. They are a great group of young men who will each leave behind a tremendous legacy and impact on this basketball team."
