Blue Jays Secure 4th Seed in Playoffs With 81-69 Win Over Arcadia

From the E-town College Website:

Box score

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Keith Fogel tied his career high with 25 points and Bryan Harrity set a career best for the second straight game with 23 points to lead Elizabethtown College to an 81-69 win over Arcadia University Saturday at Thompson Gymnasium, clinching a berth in next week's Commonwealth Conference men's basketball playoffs.

The Blue Jays (16-8 overall, 8-6 Commonwealth) are the tournament's fourth seed and will play at top-seeded Lycoming College (20-5, 10-4) Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., while second-seeded Albright College (19-5, 10-4) will host third-seeded Messiah College (16-8, 9-5) in Wednesday's other semifinal game. The winners will meet Saturday at the highest remaining seed for the Commonwealth Conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Fogel sank four three-pointers and went 9-for-10 from the foul line to match his career high of 25 points set against Arcadia on Jan. 24, 2009. Harrity, starting at center in place of Mike Church who was held out to rest an injury, went 10-for-12 from the field to surpass his previous high of 21 points set Thursday night against Lycoming.

As a team, the Blue Jays went 10-for-25 from three-point range and led from start to finish against the Knights (6-18 overall, 0-14 Commonwealth), which received a game-high 25 points from Khalief Trawick. Arcadia shot 50.8 percent (31-for-61) from the field but went just 1-for-7 from three-point range and finished 6-for-9 at the foul line while Elizabethtown hit 13-of-17 free throws.

Behind 16 points from Harrity and 10 from Fogel, the Blue Jays took a 36-25 lead to halftime. Despite shooting 41.2 percent from the field in the half, Elizabethtown led by as many as 18 points and turned 11 Arcadia turnovers into 14 points. Trawick led the Knights with nine points in the first half while Glen Gagnon added eight on 4-for-4 shooting.

In the second half, Elizabethtown led by as many as 17 points before Arcadia cut the deficit to nine at 71-62 with 2:51 remaining. The Blue Jays went 6-for-8 from the foul line in the final minute, including a 5-for-6 performance from Fogel, to secure the win.

Joe Flanagan also reached double figures for Elizabethtown with 12 points and grabbed five rebounds to share the team lead. Off the bench, Travis Mettler hustled his way to seven points, five rebounds and two steals in 20 minutes of action for the Blue Jays while Mark Vogel sank a pair of three-pointers and finished with six points.

Trawick was one of four players to score in double figures for Arcadia, as Gagnon went 6-for-6 from the field and finished with 15 points, Jose Ortiz added 13 points off the bench and Renard Smith tallied 10 points.

From The Lancaster Newspaper's Website:

Fogel, Harrity lead Blue Jays past Arcadia
E-town clinches playoff berth for the eighth time in 10 years.

Sunday News
Elizabethtown

By GORDIE JONES, Correspondent

Nobody was about to string any "Mission Accomplished" banners from one end of Thompson Gym to the other, but Elizabethtown did what it needed to do Saturday afternoon, beating Arcadia 81-69 in its regular-season finale to secure a Commonwealth Conference playoff berth.

Junior guard Keith Fogel scored 25 points to match his career high, and junior center Bryan Harrity — starting for the injured Mike Church — scored 23 to exceed his one-game-old career best by two, as the Jays (8-6 league, 16-8 overall) qualified for the postseason as the conference's fourth-place finisher.

They will face league champ Lycoming (10-4, 20-5) in a semifinal at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Williamsport. Second-place Albright (10-4, 19-5) meets third-place Messiah (9-5, 16-8) in the other semi, with the winners playing for the title (and an automatic berth in the Division III Tournament) next Saturday.

"The only thing better would be a home playoff," said Fogel, "but at this point, beggars can't be choosers."

It was Senior Day, and Church (Solanco) and forward Josh Houseal (Hempfield) were two of the four players honored beforehand. But Church, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, was held out with an ankle injury, and while Houseal started, he was limited to 12 minutes by a bad knee.

"It was the kind of day," coach Bob Schlosser said, "where we felt if we brought our energy, we'd be OK."

There were signs early on that that would be the case. A little over seven minutes into the game, Fogel poked the ball away from Alexis Alfonso, then sprinted after it and while diving out of bounds threw it off Alfonso's leg to give the Jays possession.

"That's kind of who we've always been," Fogel said. "A lot of people in the stands might be like, 'He's really hustling.' But we do that in practice every day."

Before long the E-town lead was 30-12. The last-place Knights (0-14, 6-18) cut that to 36-25 by halftime, at which point Harrity had 16 of his points, but Fogel notched 15 after the break to keep the visitors at bay.

Harrity, who shot 10-for-12 from the field, had also scored 21 points in Thursday's victory over Lycoming, and according to Schlosser, has given the team "a positive shot in the arm the second half of the season."

"He can finish around the basket with the best of them," Fogel said. "He gets it inside, and you can feel the confidence in him and the team. We know something good's about to happen."

All part of the growth process, Harrity said."

As a junior you kind of know what you're supposed to do," he said. "You know your role. You just kind of get into a rhythm and know what you're supposed to do, and what you're not supposed to do. You know your limitations."

And goodness knows he hears about them.

"We're not real excited about his defense," Schlosser said. "Neither is he."

"Trust me," Harrity said with a laugh, "he's told me."

Schlosser is excited about his team being in the playoffs for the eighth time in 10 years, and said he expects Church to be available Wednesday.

But he also knows that the mission is only starting now.

Notes: Fogel shot 6-for-12 from the field, 4-for-10 from 3-point range. ... The Jays were 10-for-25 from the arc in all, the Knights 1-for-7. ... Joe Flanagan (Lancaster Mennonite) scored 12 for E-town. ... Khalief Trawick paced Arcadia with 25.