Alvernia's Vargus leads Crusaders past Knights

Box Score READING, Pa.: Alvernia University's Josh Vargus poured in 27 points while the Crusader defense held Arcadia University to a season-low 52 points and won tonight's Commonwealth Conference men's basketball game 66-52 causing a three-way deadlock for second-place in the league.

Tonight's loss haults Arcadia's three-game win streak and is the first league blemish of the season for the Knights.  The victory was the 8th straight for Alvernia (10-3, 2-1 CC).  Now sitting tied for second in the league standings along with Alvernia and Messiah, the Knights move on to prepare for league-leading Lycoming (3-0) who visit the Kuch Center this Saturday.

Arcadia (8-5, 2-1 CC) showed early fire taking the 2-0 lead off the fast-break bucket from first year Travis Saltus. Alvernia tied it up and Arcadia's Joe Brown put his Knight back in front 4-2. Another Alvernia game-tying bucket led to a three pointer from Saltus and a 7-4 Knight's lead at 16:13. That's when Vargus converted a three-point play to give Alvernia the lead for good.

With the Crusaders in front 9-7 with 14:47 to play in the first half, the Knights stayed on their heels, keeping it a one-possession game on three occassions. Junior Khalief Trawick sank two from the line with 5:21 to go in the half and just a 24-21 advantage for Alvernia, but it would be Vargas again with a three ball and a three-point play from center Cory Boone that allowed the home team to jump back out to a nine point margin. Arcadia's Colin McCarthy sank a pair of free shots with 42 seconds to go to keep his Knights within five points of Alvernia 32-27 halftime lead.

Alvernia came out smoking in the second half, nailing their first five field goals, three in row from beyond the arc, two coming from Vargus putting Alvernia up 14, 45-31 with 16:06 remaining. That lead grew to 18 before the Knights spread the offense around and and went on a 12-0 surge capped by a three-pointer from the top of the key from first year Joe Brown, cutting their deficit to just 6, 54-48 with plenty of time to make further noise.

But the home team went to their guard with the hot hand as Vargus drained the last of his game-high 4 three point buckets to up Alvernia's lead back to double-digits before he added four more points in the paint to finish off Alvernia's 66-52 victory.

Arcadia was led by first year Travis Saltus' 11 points. Junior Malcom Still scored 8 and Brown added 7 points and 5 rebounds. McCarthy finished with 6 points and led the team with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Trawick also added 6 points and 5 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

Boone scored 10 for Alvernia along with 8 boards and 5 blocked shots.

The Knights shot just 32.8% form the field to Alvernia's 54.3%.

Arcadia looks ahead to Saturday's showdown with first-place Lycoming College. Game time is set for 3 p.m. at the Kuch Center.

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