Showing the determination and heart of a champion, the Washington & Jefferson College men's basketball team continued its remarkable turnaround Thursday night by rallying from a nine-point second-half deficit to defeat long-time nemesis and two-time defending champion Bethany 78-75 in a Presidents' Athletic Conference tournament semifinal. The game wasn't decided until Bethany's Chris Stephens missed a shot from midcourt as time expired.
While W&J, which began the season by losing 10 of its first 11 games, was upsetting the second-seed Bison, fourth-seeded Grove City (15-12) used a big second half to stun regular-season champion Westminster 86-67. As a result, third-seeded W&J (14-13), which is now above the .500 mark for the first time all season, will host the PAC title game Saturday at Henry Memorial Center. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m.
The win by W&J not only set up an unlikely final, it snapped the Presidents' six-game losing streak against Bethany and gave them their first win at steamy Hummel Field House since 1999.
"The monkey is finally off our backs," said W&J reserve center Josip Lucic-Jozak, who turned in a dominating performance by scoring 25 points on 10-for-13 shooting and grabbing 11 rebounds.
In a contest that had enough momentum swings to fill a month's worth of games, the sharp-shooting Bison owned the area beyond the three-point arc by going 11-for-26. That wasn't surprising, considering Bethany made 16 three-pointers in a first-round win over Thiel.
The problem for Bethany was W&J owned everything else - inside the arc, the lane, the backboards and the momentum over the final three minutes.
"That was another typical Bethany-W&J war," Bethany coach Aaron Huffman said.
Bethany managed to make enough three-pointers to overcome its own foul problems and forge a nine-point lead at 61-52 lead midway through the second half.
The Bison had sat leading scorer James Wallace, a senior low-post player, for the final 13 minutes of the first half after he drew his second foul. The half ended tied at 42-42, thanks to a desperation 25-foot three-pointer by W&J's Brandon Studer at the buzzer. It was one of only two three-pointers made by W&J, but it loomed large at game's end.
Bethany (19-8) got hot from the perimeter in the second half, but each time it appeared that the Bison were ready to put the game out reach, W&J would answer by throwing the ball inside to the 6-9 Jozak or 6-4 Wahab Owolabi, who had another stellar game with 21 points.
"I had Jozak rated the fourth-best player in the conference last year and he doesn't even start this year," Huffman said. "He's incredible. He's the X-factor in this league because nobody can guard him. Owolabi is a great post player, but nobody in the league is like Jozak, 6-9 with thick legs, good moves and shooting range. With us being so small, it's tough to defend 6-9 guys with 6-3 guys. W&J is a bad matchup for us."
Owolabi and Jozak combined for nine consecutive W&J points during a key stretch late in the game, and a layup by Jon Koch and Studer's driving bank shot tied the score at 71-71 with 3:47 left.
"The more we hung around, the more confidence we got," Koch said. "And Bethany hasn't been in many close tournament games, if any at all."
After the teams traded scores, W&J took the lead with a basket from an unlikely source. Sophomore Nathan Burton found himself unguarded by Bethany's man-to-man defense. Burton cut to the basket, took a pass from Koch and put in a shot that gave W&J a 75-73 edge with 2:23 to go. It was only the second field goal by a W&J point guard in two postseason games.
"There's no question that basket by Nathan Burton was huge," W&J coach Glenn Gutierrez said. "They weren't guarding him, so he went to the basket and made a play. That's the nice thing about running a motion offense like we do - you have the freedom to create."
Bethany tied it one last time at 75-75 by making 2 of 4 free throws, but Jozak powered inside to give W&J the lead for good with 1:08 remaining.
Bethany had several shots to force overtime but failed to score. Brody Jackson, who scored 21 points and was 6-for-8 from three-point range, missed from behind the arc and point guard Marcus Adams rushed a driving shot. But Burton, who is 2-for-14 from the free-throw line for the season, missed twice to give Bethany one more shot after a timeout with eight seconds left.
When W&J overplayed the in-bounds pass to Adams, the Bethany point guard drove the lane and fed Marc Palermo, who missed a leaning layup. Wallace's tip rolled off the rim and Owolabi snatched the rebound, then made one free throw with 1.5 seconds to play.
Koch and Studer each scored 10 points. Adams had 14 for Bethany, Palermo scored 11 and Wallace was held to 10.
"I'm just thrilled to death that we could come in here and pull this off," Gutierrez said.
Notes
Bethany is 8-1 in PAC tournament home games. ... W&J had 11 turnovers, but only two in the second half. ... The Presidents shot 62 percent (31-for-50) from the field but only 51.9 percent (14-for-27) from the free-throw line. ... W&J's last PAC title came in 1995.