WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – After a surprise run as the No. 5-seed through the MAC Commonwealth Championship, the Lycoming College men’s basketball team will continue its season in the NCAA Division III Championship, when it heads to Newport News, Va., for the first and second round of the tournament, kicking it off against fifth-ranked Christopher Newport on Friday night, March 4.
The winner of that first round game will take on the winner of the other first round game at the Freeman Center between Brooklyn and NYU on Saturday, March 5.
The Warriors (19-9 overall) are advancing to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2010, as the team has earned an automatic berth for just the third time. Lycoming won MAC Freedom titles in 2002 and 2004 and also earned at-large berths in 1985, 1996 and 2010.
Lycoming had an exceptional run to reach the tournament, winning three games on the road as the fifth and final seed in the MAC Commonwealth Championship to earn the title, becoming the first team in program history to win the tournament as a No. 5 seed. Lycoming opened the tournament by beating No. 4 Stevenson on Monday, Feb. 22, before posting a convincing 69-53 win over No. 1 seed Alvernia, the three-time defending conference champions on Wednesday, Feb. 24, in the conference semifinals. In the championship game, Lycoming held off a late rally to post a five-point win over Arcadia, which had beating Lycoming twice during the regular season.
The Warriors were led by sophomore Chris Wallace (Randallstown, Md./Calvert Hall), the conference tournament MVP, during the three-game run as he averaged 15.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Junior Nykolas King (Harlem, N.Y./Manhattan Center for Science & Math) added 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. Freshman T.J. Duckett (Severna Park, Md./Calvert Hall) averaged 13.7 points, hitting 63 percent of his 3-pointers (10-of-16) during the tournament.
Lycoming has five players that are averaging in double figures, led by King at 12.8 points per game, junior David Johnson (Philadelphia, Pa./Communications Tech) at 11.9 points, Duckett at 10.8, sophomore Alex Newbold (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) at 10.7 and Wallace at 10.7. The Warriors are one of the most aggressive teams in the nation, sitting seventh in the country with 735 free throw attempts. The team is also ninth in turnover margin (5.4) and 13th in turnovers forced (18.39).
It will be the first meeting ever for Christopher Newport and Lycoming. The Captains are riding a 17-game winning streak into tournament play after winning the Capital Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday with a 68-67 overtime victory over Salisbury.
The Captains are playing in the NCAA Tournament for the 20th time in program history, and the first time since the 2012-2013 season. The Captains have matched a school record for wins in a season with a 26-1 overall record, and went 18-0 in the Capital Athletic Conference. CNU became only the second team in the 26-year history of the CAC to go undefeated in conference play. CNU is one of the best defensive teams in the country, sitting fourth by allowing an average of 60.9 points per game.
Brooklyn College (21-7 overall) earned an automatic bid to the tournament by beating Baruch, 76-67 in the CUNYAC championship. Egzon Gjonbalaj leads the team with 22.8 points per game and Lorenzo Williams adds 19.2, as the team scores 85.6 points per game.
NYU had been ranked for most of the season before falling out of the D3hoops.com poll last week. Still, the Violets finished the regular season with a 20-5 overall record, including a 9-5 mark in the University Athletic Association (UAA). Evan Kupferberg leads the team with an average of 19.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.
