Late Bucket Sinks Pacers in CSAC Play
Prince Blacknall recorded game-highs of 27 points and 7 assists in the Pacers' 80-79 loss to Neumann.

Late Bucket Sinks Pacers in CSAC Play

- 1/19/2009 9:38:00 PM

BOX SCORE

Scranton, PA – Marquise Boggs hit a long two-pointer with just 2.2 seconds to play to give Neumann College an 80-79 win over Marywood University in Colonial States Athletic Conference play on Monday evening. The Knights, who snapped the Pacers' five-game winning streak with the win, improved to 8-7 on the season and 4-2 in conference play. Marywood falls to 10-5 overall and 4-3 in the CSAC.

Neumann would take a 10-3 lead over the first four minutes of Monday evening's contest, but Marywood would use a 9-2 run to tie the score at 12-12 when Joshua Pena (New York, NY) forced a turnover by the Knights and fed Prince Blacknall (Stroudsburg, PA) for an easy lay-up with 13:15 to play.

The Knights responded with an 11-2 run of their own to build a 23-14 lead on Eli Hitchens' lay-up with 9:05 to play in the half, but again the Pacers battled back and would take a 27-25 lead after Karl Anderson took a great inside feed from Blacknall and laid it in with just under five minutes remaining in the half.

The two teams swapped the lead three times over the final five minutes and Neumann took a 33-32 lead into halftime led by Hitchens' 11 points and 7 rebounds. Marywood was paced by Sidney Tharpe's (Victorville, CA) 8 points and five boards.

Matthew Medici (Princeton Junction, NJ) put Marywood ahead early in the second half on a lay-up and the Pacers would stretch their lead to as many as nine points with 15:29 to play on a three-pointer by Blacknall.

The Knights battled back to within a single point at 53-52 on Toure' Wright's lay-up with 10:34 to play, but Marywood held onto the lead down much of the stretch, though the visitors would hold the Pacers' lead their lead to within six points.

Marywood led 79-74 with 49 seconds to play after Medici hit one of two free throws following Blacknall's fourth three-pointer of the night, but Patrick O'Conner made consecutive field goals to bring Neumann to within a single point with 17 seconds left, setting the stage for Boggs' heroics.

With the shot clock unplugged, Boggs drained a shot from just inside the three-point arc to give the Knights the 80-79 advantage, their first lead since 44 seconds into the second half. Anderson's desperation three-pointer at the buzzer would not go, giving Neumann the win.

The Knights, who shot 45.5 percent from the floor, were led by Hitchens' 20 point, nine rebound effort. Sean Armstrong netted 15 points despite netting just one field goal after connecting on 13 of 15 free throw attempts. Boggs (12 points) and Na'sheed Linton (10 points) also finished in double-digits for Neumann.

Blacknall ended the night with game-highs of 27 points and 7 assists for the Pacers, who shot 49.1 percent from the floor and went 14 of 23 from the free throw line for the game. Tharpe netted 19 points and added 9 boards while Medici was the third Pacer to hit for double digits with 15 points.

Marywood returns to the hardwood on Thursday when they host Baptist Bible College in a CSAC battle scheduled to tip-off at 8:00 p.m. in Scranton.
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