The Elizabethtown College men’s basketball team beat the Stevenson University Mustangs 64-50 in the Blue Jays’ second-to-last game of the season.
Junior Andrew Mantz registered a double-double on the evening with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Ben Cable also put up significant numbers, leading Etown with 21 points. The Blue Jays also stifled two of Stevenson’s key players: Christian Thomas and Brett Burrier. Thomas has had a breakout rookie season and Burrier dropped 25 points on Etown in the last meeting of the Blue Jays and the Mustangs.
Last week, the team suffered losses against Widener University with a score of 81-77 and to Hood College with a score of 69-52. While the Jays put up an admirable performance in the second half of the Widener game, which resulted in tying the game and sending it into overtime, they were ultimately unable to maintain their edge as numerous fouls by the Jays were capitalized on by the opposition.
The opposite case occurred in their game against Hood, during which the Blue Jays initially came off strong with a quick 8-7 lead against the team they had formerly beaten earlier in the season. However, Etown performed poorly in the second half. “Our biggest issue is consistency,” remarked Head Coach Bob Schlosser after the game, an issue that has unfortunately plagued the Jays throughout the entire season.
Fortunately, in the first half of the Widener game there were some impressive performances from senior Joe Renzi, Cable and junior Joe Schwalm, who each scored two 3-point shots while Mantz dominated with seven baskets. However, the overall attempt made by Etown during the first half was lackluster, as they only made 35 percent of their attempted shots while a weak defense allowed the opposition to score multiple shots against the Jays, resulting in a 10-point lead for Widener going into the second half. The Jays performed even worse in the first half of their game against Hood, with only a 32 percent success rate among the multitude of shot attempts. Despite the fact that Mantz managed to score a quick lead early in the game, there was still a 10-point lead in favor of Hood going into the second half.
Luckily for the Jays, they were able to stage a massive comeback in the second half of the Widener game. Within a couple minutes the gap was rapidly closed by Renzi and Mantz, who scored a 3-pointer and a layup just moments apart, and the team as a whole made 50 percent of their attempted throws, showing a 15 percent improvement from the first half. Even the defense sprung to life as the ball was skillfully maneuvered away from Widener and even stolen away on three occasions. With 17 seconds left, junior Will Schlosser scored two free throws, bringing the Blue Jays within two points, and just as the opposing team took the ball back to score, Renzi stole the ball and passed it to Will Schlosser, who made a spectacular jump shot, tying the game at 70-70 with only one second left on the clock to go into overtime. “It was such an amazing comeback!” said Etown first-year Anna Podoletz as the fans around her were invigorated at the prospect of a potential win. Unfortunately, the win just wasn’t meant to be as foul after foul occurred and Widener sunk almost every single free throw, which led to the four-point loss.
The second half of the Hood game did not fare as well for the Jays as the Widener game. While the Jays were able to mount a solid defense to delay any scoring from Hood for six minutes of the second half and improved their shooting percentage by 12 percent and 3-point shooting by 30 percent, it was simply not enough to beat Hood. Over a four minute span, Hood went on an 18-2 run, which led to a massive 1- point lead with only seven minutes and 56 seconds remaining. In the end, the Jays could not recover from the point-scoring onslaught and lost by a wide 17-point margin.
Despite the losses, Coach Schlosser was proud of his team, declaring that “we don’t ever really quit. Some teams don’t do that and fold up tent. We don’t and I don’t expect we ever will.”
The Blue Jays will finish their season Saturday, Feb. 16 against Albright University at 4 p.m. at home. Although the Jays are out of the playoff run, the team still looks to end its season on a high note.