Lancaster Bible College Athletics

The Lancaster Bible College Men's Basketball team squared off against the Clarkson Golden Knights in the Championship game of the Hawks vs. Hunger Tournament hosted by Hilbert on Saturday. It took two extra periods for the Golden Knights to down the Chargers 93-91. The Chargers suffer their first loss of the season and drop to 1-1, while the Golden Knights improve to 3-0.
 
How It Happened: Carrying the momentum from Friday night's overtime victory, the Chargers started out hot, taking the lead 8-2 behind two made three-pointers from Ty Erisman and a layup from Seth Beers. The Chargers kept the lead through the remainder of the first half, responding swiftly to each of the Knights' scores. The largest lead of the half came at 1:54 as Malachi McDowell hit one of ten made three-pointers for the Chargers.
 
Between a few quick buckets at the end of the half and a solid start in the second half, the Chargers and Golden Knights found themselves even at 44-44, then again at 46-46. The Chargers proceeded to put together a 7-0 run on a three pointer from Jordan Praylow and a pair of free throws from both Beers and Isaiah Mitchell. Similar to the first half, the Chargers continued to keep a healthy cushion with the lead growing to as much as 11 points midway through the second half. With the Knights facing their first loss of the season, they managed to get within one point at 4:32, but the Chargers kept paced keeping a two-point lead with 1:42 left in regulation.
 
For the next 2:30 the Golden Knights kept the Chargers offense at bay while adding six points of their own, tying the game once again at 77-77 and a minute to go. Neither team was able to score in the last minute to send the game to the Chargers' second overtime game of the weekend.
 
With a sense of urgency, neither team let the deficit get out of reach as both teams traded the lead. It was at 2:01 that freshman Daniel King got a layup to go on an assist from Grant Sareyka, but the Golden Knights didn't let them stop converting a layup of their own to send the game to double overtime 86-86.
 
It was in the second overtime that the Chargers ran out of steam. After going up one point off two made free throws from Mitchell with 4:04 left to play, the Golden Knights reclaimed the lead and never gave it up again giving them the hard fought 93-91 victory.

From the Coach: "This is definitely a tough loss to accept when we held the lead for over 39 minutes. We are still trying to learn how to close out halves and games. It's part of the growing pains in this process.  

I thought we improved in some areas defensively compared to last night, but we still gave up too many points in the paint and second chance points. I also thought we struggled to execute offensively at the end of regulation and both overtime periods. We had multiple opportunities to win the game. We just didn't execute on  both ends to finish the game. 

This weekend was definitely a learning experience for our group against two solid teams. We will look to make adjustments and get better this week in practice." - Head Coach Jon Mack

By the Numbers: The Chargers shot 47 percent from the field while finishing 40 percent (10-25) from the three and 70 percent (19-27) from the charity stripe… the Golden Knights shot 43.9 percent from the field and 37 percent (9-24) from beyond the arc… Sareyka had 22 points and three assists while going 4-7 from deep… King added 14 points and seven rebounds… Beers finished with 13 points, 13 assists, and eight rebounds… Mitchell round out the double-figure scorers with 12 points and five rebound going 8-9 from the free throw line… Braedon Burns led all scorers with 28 points and 16 rebounds.
 
Information to Know: Beers' 13 assists sits third all-time in program history as Drew Karschner had 14 assists in 2004 against Mount Aloysius… Karschner (14) and Brian Fountain (22) are the only two with more… Beers was also able to improve to 9th place on the all-time assists list for the program, passing A.J. Lingenfelter with 272 career dimes... Senior Jordan Praylow recorded his 100th career rebound in the first half... this was the first matchup with Clarkson in program history.
 
Up Next: The Chargers will host Franklin & Marshall Saturday, November 18 at 3:00 p.m. for their 2023-24 home opener.