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PIKE CREEK, Del. – The Goldey-Beacom College men's basketball team clinched the school's first Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference South Division regular season championship on Wed. with an impressive 71-61 win on Senior Night over second-place Philadelphia University at the Joseph West Jones Center.
A raucous crowd at the Jones Center stormed the court as the clock ran out and the Lightning locked up a No. 1 seed in next week's CACC Tournament. They will host the South Division No. 4 seed University of the Sciences in the quarterfinals on Tues., Mar. 1, but still have one remaining regular season game on Fri. at Dominican.
The school's all-time leading scorer senior Sam McDuffie shined in his last regular season performance at the Jones Center, leading all scorers with 26 points on 11-of-18 from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from the stripe. He also pulled down eight rebounds, four of them on the offensive glass.
His fellow classmates, guards Azeez Ellegood and Jon Crawford, each scored 12, and they added four and two assists, respectively. Graduate student Rich Flemming, who still has one remaining year of eligibility, turned in arguably his best performance of the season with 11 points and a season-high 12 rebounds. He and Ellegood also had three steals.
Also, after scoring eight points tonight, senior forward Terrence Parkes is now second on the school's single-season points record list with 475, and he has eclipsed 900 points in just two seasons at Goldey-Beacom. He also added four rebounds to his single-season record total to give him 264, which puts him just six rebounds shy of 500 in his two-year Lightning career.
Philadelphia U., coached by Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame finalist and the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history Herb Magee, fell to 14-11 overall and 9-7 in league play. The Rams can clinch a No. 2 seed with a win against Nyack or a Chestnut Hill loss to Caldwell. Both of those games take place on Friday night.
Jimmy Connolly, the Rams sophomore guard and leading scorer coming in, tried to carry the visitors on his back, scoring over a third of the team's points with 24. A former high school teammate at Souderton Area of GBC freshman guard A.J. Picard, Connolly scored 12 in each half, but was much more efficient in the first half. He shot 4-of-8 in the opening frame but just 4-of-13 (3-of-12 from three-point range) in the second half. Corey Francisco was the only other Ram in double-figures as he posted 15 points and six rebounds.
With this win, the Lightning (17-9, 12-4 CACC) avenged a 74-55 loss to the Rams at the Gallagher Center in the conference season opener on Dec. 1. Since that game, GBC has now won 16 of its last 20 games. In addition, the Lightning set a new school record for home wins in a season with 12 and extended their school-record home winning streak at the Jones Center to 11.
GBC controlled the lead for nearly the first eight minutes of play, going up by as many as six (10-4) after a McDuffie jumper, but a traditional three-point play by Connoly at the 12:14 mark gave the Rams their first lead of the game, 12-10. Ola Sasona made 1-of-2 at the line about a minute later to cap what was a 9-0 Philadelphia run, and the Rams owned a three-point lead.
After Crawford connected on one of his pair of three-point shots to tie the game nearing the 11-minute mark, the see-saw battle was on. First Phila U. used a 5-0 spurt to claim an 18-13 advantage, but the Lightning answered with a 7-0 run, capped by an electrifying one-handed slam by McDuffie to take back the lead, 20-18 and force Magee to call a Phila U. timeout just before the seven-minute mark.
Out of the timeout, the two teams traded baskets once more before five straight points by Connolly gave the Rams a 25-22 lead with 4:04 left before the break. The Lightning closed out the half on a 7-2 run, however, and took a 30-27 lead into halftime.
Helped by an Ellegood three-pointer and four free-throws by Crawford, GBC scored 11 of the first 16 points in the second half to take its largest lead yet, 41-32 at the 16:23 mark. Seven consecutive Phila U. points, including a three by Connolly, put the Rams back within two when Parkes' only three-point field goal of the night ignited an 8-0 Lightning surge to put GBC up 51-41 with 12:05 to play.
Back came Connolly and the Rams who closed within one on an 11-1 charge capped by a conventional three-point play by Connolly at 8:50. After two straight buckets by McDuffie widened the gap back to five, they went on a 6-0 run to take their first lead of the second half, 58-57 at the 5:14 mark.
Just as he has done throughout his four-year career with the Lightning, Ellegood made a pivotal three-point shot at the 4:55 mark to help GBC reclaim the lead, 60-58. Then, following a game-tying layup by Phila U.'s Nick Christian, the Lightning scored 11 of the final 12 points in the game, allowing the Rams just one made free-throw in the final 4:16 to close out an exciting 71-61 victory.
Phila U. held a 50-percent to 43-percent shooting edge for the night, but the Lightning outrebounded the Rams 37-29 and forced 22 turnovers, of which, they turned into 28 points. GBC was able to get Phila U.'s 7-foot center Temi Adebayo in some early second-half foul trouble which rendered him ineffective on the glass with nine points but just two rebounds in 25 minutes of work.
The Lightning did not shoot particularly well at the line (15-of-22) but made out much better than the Rams who made just 40-percent at the line (6-of-15).
Up next for GBC is the regular season finale at Dominican on Fri., Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. The Lightning will travel to the Hennessy Center in Orangeburg, N.Y. to take on a Charger squad that has already wrapped up a No. 3 seed in the conference tournament out of the North division. If the Lightning are able to come away with a win on what is the Chargers' Senior Night, they will have defeated every team in the CACC at least once this season.
Fans can follow a “LiveStats” link for the Dominican game available on the home page calendar.
