Men's Basketball Gets Hard-Fought 87-83 Victory Over Alvernia

(box score)

Widener went down to the wire against first-place Alvernia and held on for its fifth straight win, an 87-83 Commonwealth Conference victory at Schwartz Center.

Sophomore Laron Byrd (Philadelphia, PA), who scored five points in the last 3:06, hit a jumper with that amount left to give Widener an 82-78 lead. Alvernia, which trailed in the first half by as many as 18 points, moved within one with 2:44 remaining when Kahlil Bennett canned a 3-pointer.

The Crusaders got the ball back looking to take the lead when Brian Parker threw a cross-court pass that junior Dillon Fields (Medford, NJ) easily intercepted a took in for a layup, giving Widener an 84-81 cushion with 2:05 to play.

Parker temporarily made amends when his layup with 1:53 left brought Alvernia within 84-83. Byrd then made one of two from the stripe with 1:14 remaining for an 85-83 contest.

Alvernia again looked for the lead on a 3-pointer after Bennett misfired, but Chris Davis' attempt fell short and Widener got the ball in the last minute. Fields drove down the left wing with the shot clock running down and had his attempt blocked by Harrison Deyo, but senior Rob McPherson (Bowie, MD) was involved in a tie-up that gave Widener the ball on the possession arrow.

Sophomore David Nicholson (Odenton, MD), who leads the squad by shooting 83 percent from the line, then hit two from the stripe to cap his 7-for-7 day and end the scoring.

Six players for the Pride scored in double figures, led by Fields' 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Nicholson had 15, Byrd again played great with 14, McPherson had 10, nine rebounds and seven assists, senior Connor Dean (Woodbine, NJ) netted 10 points and so did senior Andrew Radomicki (Media, PA).

Widener shot 59 percent (16-of-27) from the field in the second half and a season-best 57 percent (28-of-49) overall to match its longest winning streak of the season.

Parker scored 25 points to give him 1,003 career, grabbed 15 rebounds and shot 11-for-15 from the line for Alvernia, which hit 42 percent (25-of-60) from the floor but only 9-of-28 from beyond the arc. Charles Cooper netted 17 points, Lamont Clark netted 16 and Bennett added 14.

The victory moves Widener (13-10, 7-9 CC) into a three-way tie for sixth place in the league and just one game behind Albright (8-8) for the fifth and final conference tournament spot with two games left. Alvernia (15-7, 11-5) falls into a tie for second place with Stevenson, one game in back of Messiah.

Widener on Tuesday again faces a first-place team, this time battling Messiah at 8:00 pm in Grantham, PA.

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