Box Score
Derek Hall scored his 1000th career point on Senior Day and the Albright College men's basketball team beat Widener 87-68, as the Lions completed a remarkable run to the Commonwealth Conference playoffs by winning their final six games and getting in on a long list of tie-breakers.
Hall finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds- his 13th double-double of the season. Four other Lions were in double-figures:
Kyle Jordan (18 points, nine rebounds, three blocks, three steals),
Pedro Perez (6-of-9, 14 points),
Dave Singleton (13 points, six assists) and
Sam Marrella (4-of-6, 10 points).
Albright finishes the regular season with a record of 17-8, 8-6 and will travel to first-place Messiah for a semifinal game on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Widener (18-7, 9-5) will host Lycoming on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal.
Hall scored a lay-up five minutes into the contest to get to 997 career points and then completed the milestone with a three-point play, 13:57 into the action.
Albright was absolutely outstanding for the first 10-plus minutes of the game, opening up a 27-6 lead on the second-place Pride.
Singleton scored early on the fast break to make it 4-0, and then he and Marrella each hit
Pedro Perez with similar cross-court passes as the Lions went ahead 19-6. Albright went on to hold a 26-6 advantage in fast break points for the game.
Albright lost a bit of momentum on consecutive charge calls on Singleton and Jordan, but had a raucous crowd back in the game as Hall joined the 1000-point club and then completed a tip-in to make it 34-19 Lions.
Albright led by 16 at the break, holding one of the region's most explosive offenses (Widener has broken 100 in regulation three times this year) to just 26 first-half points.
It was more Red and White in the second half, as Hall's hook shot put his team up 46-28 and Jordan was left wide open for a three-pointer that made it 49-30 Lions.
With 10:29 remaining, Jordan stole a pass and found
Cornell Mickens on the fast break to put the Lions up 63-44 and force Widener to call timeout. The Pride attempted to press but three separate times Perez found his teammates for open jumpers on the fast break.
Widener actually had four players in double-figures, led by senior
Perry Wright (19 points, nine rebounds).
Brian Smith had 13 points,
Bob Makor added 11 and
Jack Brennan chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds in the post.
Hall was honored at his final career home game along with classmate
Mark Christian, who started and saw 11 minutes of action.
Mickens had eight points on the afternoon but one can actually go back to a trio of free throws he hit in the final 17 seconds of a February 8 game vs. Alvernia as a major key to Albright's season.
With the Lions finishing up in a three-way tie at 8-6 with Lycoming and Alvernia for the final two playoff spots, the scenario went to a fourth tie-breaker- Lycoming's 2-0 record against sixth-place Lebanon Valley (all three teams went 1-1 against each other, 0-2 against #1 Messiah and 1-1 against #2 Widener).
That left the fourth spot up to the two Reading teams and amazingly the Lions got in at the expense of their biggest rival on the eighth tie-breaker. The two squads were 1-1 against each other and somehow had matching records against each of the other six Commonwealth teams (the tie-breaker is record against each team in the league in descending order). That meant the playoff spot came down to head-to-head point differential, and Albright followed up a six-point away loss to the Crusaders by beating them 65-57 in the Bollman Center.
No matter how slim the margin, the Lions are now the league's hottest team as they enter the playoffs on six straight wins. However, the road only gets tougher as Albright will face the one Commonwealth team it didn't beat in the second half of the season when the Red and White visit Messiah on Wednesday night.
