The Lancaster Bible men's basketball is headed back to the North Eastern Athletic Conference Final as the Chargers defeated Keuka, 62-53 in Saturday's NEAC Semifinal at Horst Athletic Center. The Chargers are 24-2 this season and will face SUNY Cobleskill (16-10) in Sunday's Final. The Fighting Tigers defeated Penn St. Abington, 79-69 in the day's other semifinal.

Saturday's game was by no means a shooting exhibition as the teams combined for just 34 field goals over the course of 40 minutes. In the absence of made buckets, the teams combined for 48 fouls as the game came to a standstill several times. 

Playing in the top seed's building, it was Keuka who played well in the early going as the Wolfpack took a 13-5 lead on a Vinney Zambito 3-pointer with 13:12 to play in the first half. After a timeout by the Chargers, Lancaster Bible used an 11-0 run over the next three minutes to take a 16-13 lead with 9:03 left in the half. From there the game went back-and-forth for several minutes as each team struggled to score. 

With 1:50 to go in the half, Dondre Perry made two straight free throws to give Lancaster Bible its largest lead of the half at 25-19, but the Wolfpack answered with a 6-1 run to end the half as the Chargers led by one, 26-25. Keuka shot 9-of-33 (27.3 percent) in the first half, while the Chargers shot 8-of-25 (32 percent) during the opening 20 minutes. 

Trevor Healey, the Wolfpack's top scorer, opened the scoring in the second half after being limited to just six points in the opening half due to picking up three fouls. His early bucket turned out to be the only bucket Keuka would score in the first seven minutes of the second half as Lancaster Bible went on a 10-0 run and took a 36-27 lead. From 6:30 remaining in the first half to 13:11 remaining in the second half, a 13:19 span, Keuka scored just nine points.

Even though Keuka finally broke the drought with two free throws and bucket from Casey Williams, the Chargers continued to build their lead shortly after that and eventually took their biggest lead of the contest at 49-33 on a layup from freshman Herbie Brown. 

The Wolfpack kept fighting and eventually cut their deficit to seven, 55-48, on a 3-pointer from Adam Starks with 1:50 to play, but would not get closer as the Chargers closed the game out in the final minute.

"We struggled offensively, but I don't think it was because we took bad shots," Lancaster Bible Head Coach Marshall Tague said. "I can't remember too many bad shots and that stuff usually drives me crazy, so I think would remember if that was a problem."

Tague said he thought Lancaster Bible did a good job of getting Keuka's best players off the floor via foul trouble.

"We got their guys into foul trouble, specifically Healey, and it paid off for us," Tague said. "We talked about being aggressive and attacking the basket this week and I thought we did a good job of that."

Senior Naheer Mirza led Lancaster Bible with 15 points, eight of which came at the free throw line, while Perry was the only other Lancaster Bible player in double figures with 10. 

"It was good to see Dre rebound from a tough start and make an impact on the game," Tague said. "When he has slow starts, sometimes he becomes hesitant the rest of the game, but today he overcame that start and was able to play well when we needed him to."

One of the main struggles of the day for Lancaster Bible came at the charity stripe as the Chargers shot just 24-of-37 (64.9 percent) from the free throw line.

"You kind of need to shrug your shoulders and say OK," Tague said. "Usually in back-to-back games you don't shoot that badly from the free throw line, so we will hope this was our bad day and shoot better tomorrow."

Tague also mentioned Lancaster Bible's work on guarding the post during practice this week as a reason for the win. Keuka had very few easy buckets and had to work hard for many of their shots.

"We worked on guarding the post most of the week and it is certainly something we can use on Sunday as well against the big guys from Cobleskill," Tague said. 

In addition to the double digit scorers, Mirza and Perry, junior CJ Dunston added eight points, 11 rebounds and three steals for the Chargers, while Albert Suniga had eight points and five boards. Senior Corey Leonard had seven points and five rebounds as he played well once again for Lancaster Bible. 

Lancaster Bible will now turn its attention to SUNY Cobleskill as the Chargers gear up for their second straight NEAC Final.

"It's the two best teams in the conference, just like last season," Tague said. "There are seniors on both teams who want to win and I think scoring will be tough for both teams."

The Chargers defeated the Fighting Tigers, 55-54 in Cobleskill, N.Y. on February 14. 

Sunday's game will begin at 2 p.m. and can be seen via live video HERE. 

Notes:
-SUNY Cobleskill has never played in the NEAC Final.

-CJ Dunston is just 24 points from 1,000 for his career.