Blue Jays to play at Albright in Commonwealth semifinals

From the E-town College Website:

2/24/2009

Men's basketball to play at Albright in Commonwealth semifinals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Elizabethtown to Face Albright in Commonwealth Semifinals

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College will battle Albright College in a Commonwealth Conference men's basketball semifinal game on Wednesday night at the Bollman Center in Reading, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

The Blue Jays finished 13-11 overall and in third place in the conference with a 7-5 record, while the Lions completed the 2008-09 regular season with a 17-8 overall record and an 8-4 mark in conference play, good enough for second place in the final standings.

The winner of Wednesday's game will play in the championship game on Saturday against the winner of the other semifinal game between fourth-seeded Messiah College and top-seeded Widener University. The Commonwealth Conference champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

Admission to Wednesday's contest is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students, with children under six admitted free of charge. Streaming audio and live stats will be available for download through links posted on the Elizabethtown sports web site.

Elizabethtown and Albright have met in the Commonwealth Conference semifinals on three previous occasions, with the Blue Jays winning 83-74 at Thompson Gymnasium in 2001 and 99-87 in overtime at the Bollman Center in 2004. The Lions won the most-recent playoff battle between the teams with an 81-65 home-court win in 2005.

During the regular season, Albright won both meetings with Elizabethtown, picking up a 93-80 victory at home on Jan. 14 and a 69-65 overtime victory at Thompson Gymnasium on Jan. 31.

Including the postseason, the Blue Jays have lost six straight games in Reading since the aforementioned playoff overtime win in 2004.

The Blue Jays, making their first postseason appearance since 2006, won their final three regular-season games to lock up third place in the standings. Elizabethtown improved from 2-8 in conference play in 2007-08 to 8-4 this season. Albright also won its final three games and six of its last seven to secure their fifth trip to the conference playoffs in the last six years.

Elizabethtown has three players averaging over 12 points per game for 19th-year head coach Bob Schlosser (292-197 record), led by sophomore swingman Joe Flanagan (Lancaster, PA/Lancaster Mennonite) at 14.8 points per game. He leads the squad with 50 three-pointers and has scored in double figures in 20 out of 24 games.

Junior center Mike Church (Peach Bottom, PA/Solanco) is second on the team with 12.5 points per game, and leads the Blue Jays with an average of 6.4 rebounds per game along with a conference-best 36 blocked shots.

Sophomore guard Keith Fogel (Mifflinburg, PA/Mifflinburg) is even with Church in scoring average (12.5 points per game) and is second on the squad with 36 three-pointers. Fogel also leads the team in foul shooting (86.7 percent, 39-for-45) and has a a team-high 52 steals.

Rounding out the starting lineup are junior forward Josh Houseal (Landisville, PA/Hempfield), who averages 6.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and senior point guard Phil Schaffer (Marmora, NJ/Ocean City), who averages 4.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game and is the lone senior on the roster.

Key contributors off the bench include first-year guard Kyle McConnell (Lebanon, PA/Cedar Crest), who is averaging 4.4 points per game as Schaffer's backup at point guard, sophomore center Chris Hill (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty), who chips in 3.5 points and 2.0 rebounds per contest, and junior guard Chris Jones (Airville, PA/Kennard-Dale), who has made seven consecutive three-point attempts spanning the last four games.

The Lions are led by 6-11 senior center Phil Hall, a conference Player of the Year contender who averages 14.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting 55.8 percent (148-for-265) from the field. Sophomore guard Zac Shaeffer also averages in double figures for Albright with 12.3 points per contest to go with a team-high 57 three-pointers.