The hearts of the Elizabethtown College men’s basketball team broke on Valentine’s Day with a last second loss to the Greyhounds at Moravian College. The Blue Jays turned the ball over twice in the last 10 seconds of the game, allowing the Greyhounds to score and get away with a 61-60 win.
Tyler Simpkiss scored a game-high 20 points for the Blue Jays, shooting 8-of-13. Going into half, he had 13. Senior Evan Hathaway took over in the second half, scoring nine of his season-high 13 points. “The mindset going into this game was to treat it like it was a playoff game,” he said.
Sophomore Josh Eden earned Etown 12 points and eight rebounds. “This game we were focused on getting a huge conference win and trying to secure a playoff spot,” Eden said.
Going into the second half, Etown was led 33-31. Late in the second half, Moravian formed a seven-point lead, but the Jays were able to fight their way back into the game.
Hathaway had back-to-back layups to go along with jumpers by senior Joe Bodnar and Eden to cut the lead to one with 3:38 left in the game.
There were two shots made in the remainder of the game. One was a layup from Tommy James with 1:39 left, which gave Etown the lead 60-59. The other was the by the Greyhounds with 4.6 seconds remaining.
The Blue Jays were unable to inbound the ball to an open player with 9.5 seconds left on the clock, so to avoid the five-second call, they threw a desperation pass long. Moravian intercepted the pass and made it to the basket to convert it into a game-winning layup.
The Blue Jays did not get a chance to take a last second shot due to the Greyhounds defense, forcing yet another errant inbounds pass.
“Going forward, the team needs to just keep believing in each other. Our past two losses have been extremely tough,” said Hathaway. “We still have a very good chance of making the playoffs, and it is important for everyone on the team to have faith in one another heading into our last two conference games.”
Eden and Hathaway both anticipate the team to make playoffs. “I feel we have had a lot of tough games that, unfortunately, we could not win. That being said, we have done enough at this point to still control our season,” said Eden.
“If we want to live up to our expectations and be a playoff team, we have to get a victory on the road Wednesday,” Hathaway said.
Juniata College, who lost to the United States Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday, is still in the running for the fourth-place playoff spot due to losses from Etown and Drew University. Juniata must beat undefeated Catholic University on Wednesday to remain in the picture. If Juniata loses, then either Etown or Drew will have the last spot.
A win for Etown on Wednesday will secure their playoff spot, but they would not be eliminated with a loss. Etown would have to win next Saturday at Susquehanna University to clinch the fourth playoff spot.
“Our conference play has been good, but it could be much better,” Hathaway said. “All we can focus on now is what is in front of us. Making the conference playoffs has been our goal since we were freshmen. We essentially control our own destiny, and with seven committed seniors on the team, I believe we will be a playoff team by the end of next week.”
Last night’s game did not start out the way the Blue Jays had hoped, with Drew grabbing a 12 point halftime advantage. Led by four players in double digits, the Rangers went on to defeat the Blue Jays 79-61 to grab the fourth playoff spot in the Landmark Conference for the time being.
The win for Drew came in their final game of the season as the Rangers finish with a 7-9 conference record and a half game lead over the Blue Jays for the final playoff spot. Etown is now in fifth place in the conference and need a win on Saturday at Susquehanna to give themselves a chance at the playoffs.
Bodnar led all scorers in last night’s game with 23 points on five of 10 shooting from three-point land. Hathaway scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 38 minutes of action for the Blue Jays who dropped to 6-9 in the Landmark.
