Thursday Morning News

First from the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal:

Hungry Blue Jays subdue Albright
Advance to Commonwealth title game

Intelligencer Journal

Published: Feb 26, 200901:41 EST

Reading

By JOEL SCHREINER, Correspondent

Elizabethtown came here looking for redemption.

Twice, earlier this season, the Blue Jays lost to Albright, but this latest shot was the most important of the three and gave the Jays the chance to wipe the slate clean.

In the end, it was the hungrier Jays who got their revenge as they tamed the Lions, 68-64, in a Commonwealth Conference semifinal playoff game Wednesday night at Bollman Center.

Mike Church scored a team-high 17 points to pace the Jays (14-11), who go to Saturday's title game for the first time since 2004, where they will face Widener, a 76-61 winner over Messiah in Wednesday's other semifinal.

The title game is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Widener.

"After we lost to them the second time, we said we hope we see them in the playoffs," Church recalled. "We wanted to come in here and take it back at them."

Ironically, Wednesday's win came five years to the day of Elizabethtown's last win at Albright.

That, too, was a playoff win, 99-87 in OT. Since then, it's been all Lions, including two OT wins in the last three games.

"We've had some tough losses with them lately," said Blue Jay coach Bob Schlosser. "It's a matter of sticking with it and believing you can win. I think my guys really believed tonight."

That was evident right from the opening tip when Church, the 6-foot-4 Solanco grad, won the tip against the 6-11 Phil Hall. It set the tone as it was Church who took it to the big man all game.

Church was 7-for-16 from the floor, while making Hall earn his points at the other end.

"That's the first he really went at him and it was effective," explained Albright coach Rick Ferry, of Church's effort. "There's a lot of times he (Hall) goes against guys who don't want to play against him so he can rest at the defensive end and that wasn't the case at all tonight."

While Hall got his 20 points, it was E-town's defensive pressure on Zac Shaeffer, Albright's second-leading scorer, that may have been the biggest factor.

Thanks in large part to Phil Schaffer and Kyle McConnell, Shaeffer (Lampeter-Strasburg grad) was held to just two points, well below his season average of 12 per game.

"We kept Zac Shaeffer in check and that's a key," said Schlosser. "You can't let them both get a lot of points or you're in trouble. Hall got his, but we made him work for them."

Both teams set a frantic pace early on, but neither could open up more than a five-point lead and the Lions took a 37-33 halftime lead. Albright shot a blistering 16-for-27 from the floor in the opening half, but things quickly changed after the break.

The Lions (17-9) misfired on their first 13 shots of the second half and the Jays were able to take advantage. A 12-2 run gave Elizabethtown a 45-39 lead with 11:32 left to play. Albright's first basket of the second half came via Hall's baby hook at the 10:20 mark.

Still up 47-45 and the momentum seemingly shifting the other way, Church hit a layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but the Jays grabbed the rebound and Joe Flanagan buried a 3-pointer and just like that, the Jays were up 52-45 with 9:36 to play.

Flanagan, the Lancaster Mennonite grad, finished with 12 points.

"That was a great game," said Flanagan. "Everybody contributed. It was a great team win."

The Lions were able to chip away and eventually tied it, 57-57, with 4:47 to go. E-town then ran off four straight points, but Albright answered with a 5-0 spurt and took the lead on Shaeffer's lone basket of the night with 1:56 left.

Bryan Harrity knocked down a baseline jumper with 1:29 to play to give the Jays the lead for good. Keith Fogel (13 points) added a trey to push the lead to 66-62 with 48 seconds left.

"Sometimes it's not just making a basket, it's when you make it," said Schlosser, of the pivotal back-to-back buckets. "They wanted to play Albright. We've had a tough time with them lately, but we believed we could win. We believed we were going to win this game and they played that way."

The Lions turned the ball over 16 times in the game and were limited to a 9-for-32 clip from the floor in the second half, including a dismal 1-for-9 from beyond the arc. The Jays, meanwhile, drained 4-of-6 from long range after the break.

Flanagan had a pair of them.

"They killed us down here, then beat us in overtime at our court, so it was in our heads that we wanted to play them again," Flanagan said of the redemption.

Now it's on to Widener, who coincidentally, beat the Jays twice earlier this season.

From The Reading Eagle:

2/26/2009

E-Town has an answer for Lions down stretch

The Blue Jays, who had lost six straight to Albright, make clutch shots in semifinal win

By Rich Scarcella
Reading Eagle

The biggest shot Wednesday night wasn't taken by Joe Flanagan, Elizabethtown's leading scorer, or by any other Blue Jays starter.

Trailing Albright by one point late in a Commonwealth Conference semifinal, Elizabethtown turned to Bryan Harrity, a seldom-used reserve who was scoring a mere 1.6 points a game and shooting a dismal 31 percent.

Harrity hit a jumper from the left corner with 1:29 to go and the shot clock winding down, sending the Blue Jays on their way to a 68-64 win and into the Commonwealth title game Saturday at Widener.

"I wanted him to take that shot," Elizabethtown coach Bob Schlosser said. "I told him, 'Don't be afraid to shoot.' He can shoot it a little bit."

Put the emphasis on little. Harrity's basket gave the Blue Jays (14-11) the lead for good, 63-62, and was typical of several clutch shots they made in the final 10 minutes at loud and steamy Bollman Center.

After Albright (17-9) cut it to 47-45, Mike Church scored on a post move, a recurring theme, and was fouled by Phil Hall. Church missed the free throw, but 5-9 Phil Schaffer came up with the offensive rebound and found Flanagan, who buried a 3-pointer to make it 52-45.

Andre Murphy's layup and Matt Ashcroft's 3 trimmed it to two again, but Church converted a three-point play on the break. The Lions tied it at 57 on Hall's putback, but Church responded with two free throws and a reverse layup against Hall.

"They stepped up and made big shots when they needed to make them," Hall said. "We kept crawling back in the game, and they had an answer every time."

Elizabethtown had lost six in a row to Albright, including two this season. Scholosser put in a few new wrinkles on offense, but the biggest change he made was having the 6-4 Church take the basketball at the 6-11 Hall.

Church scored 17 points, making Hall work on the defensive end. Hall finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, but he missed three of his last four shots.

"Phil was gassed at the end," Albright coach Rick Ferry said. "You can just see that his legs were gone. There are a lot of times when he goes against guys who don't want to play against him, so he could rest on the defensive end. That wasn't the case tonight."

Keith Fogel scored 13 points for the Blue Jays, including a trey that made it 66-62 in the final minute. Matt Bazsika got the Lions within two with a rebound basket, and Schaffer opened the door by making 1-of-2 free throws with 34.7 seconds remaining.

But Adam Van Zelst threw the ball out of bounds while trying to get it to Hall. Josh Houseal made a free throw to put Elizabethtown up by four, and Zac Shaeffer and Andre Murphy missed from behind the arc.

Albright lost a conference semifinal at home for the second year in a row, despite outrebounding the Blue Jays 43-28. The Lions took a 37-33 halftime lead while shooting 59 percent, but they missed their first 13 shots of the second half and never regained their rhythm.

"We had good looks," Ferry said.

Shaeffer, who scored 28 points in the regular season finale, had just two on 1-of-7 shooting.

"We always pay attention to him," Scholosser said. "He struggled tonight. Other games we focused on him just as much and he got his. Tonight he wasn't himself."

Unless Albright receives an invitation from the ECAC, Hall, Bazsika and Mike Larkin played their final games for the Lions.

"The worst thing is knowing it's the last game I'm ever going to play," Hall said. "It hurts."

Contact Rich Scarcella: 610-371-5070 or rscarcella@readingeagle.com.