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Charles Jones (Philadelphia, PA) scored 12 points to be named tournament MVP and fellow senior Matt Sosna (Stratford, NJ) notched a double-double for Widener, which captured its third straight Commonwealth Conference title with a 67-65 win over Elizabethtown at Schwartz Center.
Top-seeded Widener (22-5, 10-2 CC) won its 15th Middle Atlantic/Commonwealth Conference championship and is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the 17th time in school history. It is the first time the Pride have won three straight titles since 1976-78 and first time they will play in four successive NCAA tournaments since 1975-78.
The pairings will be announced Monday on NCAA.com at 11:00 am.
Things look good early on for the Pride, who raced to a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes and held a 33-21 cushion with 5:59 left. But the third-seeded Blue Jays (14-12), trailing 36-26 with 3:34 to go in the half, closed the period on a 13-4 spurt for a 40-39 Pride lead. The run was punctuated by Keith Fogel (Mifflinburg, PA) swishing a half-court shot at the buzzer.
The second half was even more nerve-wracking, especially when Phil Schaffer hit a layup with 2:38 left to bring Elizabethtown within 63-61. Junior Jamarr Johnson (Pittsgrove, NJ) gave Widener some breathing room, making a layup with 1:31 remaining and adding a steal and layup 11 seconds later for a 67-61 game.
Elizabethtown's Joe Flanagan hit a layup with 43 seconds left for a 67-63 game. Widener senior Nyere Miller (Washington, DC) was called for traveling with 39 seconds left, but the Blue Jays could not capitalize as Flanagan missed a layup.
Miller missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 14 seconds left and the drama continued as Fogel buried a jumper with 6.2 seconds to play for a 67-65 game.
Widener again misfired on the line as Sosna could not convert the first of a 1-and-1 with 4.3 seconds to play. The Pride had a foul to give and Sosna committed one with 0.4 seconds remaining.
Elizabethtown had the ball at midcourt and tried for a lob, but former Widener player Bryan Harrity threw it over the backboard. The Pride simply inbounded it and celebrated the title.
Widener's defense played a key role, holding Elizabethtown to just 39 percent shooting (12-of-31) in the second half and 6-of-19 overall from 3-point range.
Jones' award comes by virtue of posting 31 points and eight rebounds in the two tournament games. He was a second team all-district pick last season as well as first team all-conference.
Sosna closed with 11 points and 10 rebounds with Johnson posting 12 points and five steals over 22 solid minutes. Sophomore Chris McDevitt (Doylestown, PA) scored eight points for Widener, which shot 40 percent (22-of-55) overall and notched its eighth straight win.
Fogel netted 18 points, Mike Church (Peach Bottom, PA) had 17 and 12 rebounds and Josh Houseal scored 12 points for the Blue Jays.
With the women's team also winning the conference title, it marks the first time since 1982 that both squads captured a league title and are headed to the NCAA Tournament in the same year.
