For the first time since 1997, the Dickinson Men’s Basketball team is Centennial Conference champion. It was a wild tournament for the Red Devils who needed to defeat the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats in order to secure a place in the NCAA Tournament. They completed both objectives by overcoming the Blue Jays 73-64 in the semifinal round on Friday, Feb. 22, and trouncing the Diplomats 64-40 in the championship on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Coming off a devastating 64-34 loss to F & M in the final week of the regular season, the Devils were determined to silence the doubters and set up a rematch with the Diplomats. On Friday, Feb. 22, the Red Devils had to battle with the Blue Jays in order to get to the final round of the tournament. The Blue Jays started hot, jumping out to an early 20-11 lead. Steve Collins ’15 kept the Devils close until they started to find their groove, as Ted Hinnenkamp ’16 finished a layup to cap an 8-0 run and cut the score to 27-26. Unfortunately, that would be closest Dickinson would come to taking the lead in the first half, as they trailed 38-32 at the break.
Johns Hopkins continued to pad the lead early in the half, stretching their margin to 47-36. Down 11 with 13 minutes to play, Brandon Angradi ’16 got the comeback trail started with back-to-back three pointers. After two clutch free throws by Adam Honig ’14, it would be Gerry Wixted ’15 who would cap off the 11-0 run with a layup off the steal by Tucker Landy ’14 to tie the game 47-47. Landy would later give the Devils a 51-49 lead with a layup of his own with 6:50 to play. The teams would trade baskets for the next few minutes before Honig hit a fade away two point jumper to give the Devils a 64-62 lead, one they would not relinquish. A minute later, Wixted would seal the deal with a thunderous three pointer from the far corner, extending the lead 67-62 with 56 seconds to play. Dickinson would roll on to win 73-64. Wixted finished the game as the lead scorer with 18 points and controlled 10 rebounds, adding three assists, two blocks and two steals. Honig had 10 points and a game high 11 rebounds to go with six assists.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, the Red Devils were on a mission to, not only beat Franklin & Marshall, but to destroy them 64-40. They had to overcome a Diplomat team that had been undefeated at home and had won three consecutive conference championships. The Diplomats only led twice during the entire game and after the 14:38 mark in the first half, they would never catch up. With the score 10-9, Wixted lined up and drained a three to start the rout. At the 8:50 mark, Adam Honig extended the lead 23-15 with a deep three pointer of his own. The Devils would close the first half with a 33-25 lead.
The Devils continued the relentless attack on the Diplomats in the second half. Landy hit a layup to give Dickinson their first double-digit lead, 37-27. Chris Cox ’15 sealed the game and ignited the crowd in style with a one handed tomahawk dunk to make the score 56-37. To finish off the historic night, Jimmy Fenerty ’13 flew into the lane and banked home a magnificent layup. As the buzzer sounded, the Dickinson fans who had traveled to Lancaster sprinted to half court to greet the new Centennial Conference champions. With this victory the Devils automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament and, for the first time in school history, will host the first round. The Red Devils will square off against Marietta College on Saturday, Mar. 2, at 7 p.m. If you can’t make it to the game, you can catch all the action on http://blogs.dickinson.edu/wdcvfm/online-stream-128-kbps/.
