City of Basketball Love

Justin Allen (@Jallen_Town)
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For the first time in its history, Arcadia (17-9, 9-7) will play host to the MAC Commonwealth Championship Saturday evening, when it welcomes familiar foe Lycoming (18-9, 8-8) at 7 PM on Saturday.

“To be able to play at home on Saturday is going to be huge,” Arcadia head coach Justin Scott said.

The two teams will play for the third time in as many months, but with much more on the line this time – a trip to the NCAA Division III tournament.

Arcadia won each of the previous two meetings with Lycoming, the second of which, an 86-84 victory, really stands out to the Knights head coach.

“For us, we learned that the game is never over until the final horn sounds,” Scott said. “We trailed by five with 12 seconds left to play and came away with a win.  That was huge for us.”

It was Brandon Thompson (Conestoga) who came off the pine and poured in a career-best 25 points, including the last four points over the span of nine seconds.

“One of the biggest takeaways was that we have to be better rebounding,” Scott said of the previous meetings. “We have to limit them on the offensive glass.  They killed us on the boards both times we played before.”

The Knights were outrebounded 46-36, including 18 on the offensive glass during the first game.

“Lycoming does a lot of things well. They really put pressure on the defense and make you try to stop them in transition,” Scott said.

The Warriors have a balanced offense that features five players averaging between 10 and 13 points per game, led by junior guard Nykolas King (12.9).  They also feature a strong perimeter game that revolves around freshman T.J. Duckett, who is shooting the 3-ball at nearly a 45-percent clip (61-of-137).

“We have to really try to do the things that got us here,” Scott said. “We need to rebound and we need to really trust ourselves and each other, but most of all we need to have fun.”

Scott’s team is led by a duo of All-League upperclassmen, senior John Landro and junior Ryan Kelley, but the Knights are getting major contributions from several key freshmen, including Josh Scott (Penn Wood), who was recently crowned Rookie of the Year for the MAC Commonwealth Conference. Scott is averaging 12.2 points per game, as well as nearly five rebounds and three assists.

Phil Pierfy and Evan Slone (Souderton) are also standouts amongst a group of 11 freshmen that are currently on the Knights roster.

“At this point, experience really doesn’t matter,” Justin Scott said.  “Yes, we have some young guys, but at this point everyone has played 25 or 26 games.  They’re no longer freshmen in my book.”

Lycoming, on the other hand, has a bevy of upperclassmen who are looking to win the school’s first Commonwealth title after reaching the finals four times previously.

Arcadia has never won a conference championship and is making only its third appearance ever in the Commonwealth playoffs.

“This is a big opportunity for our guys, for our school, and the whole community,” Scott said.