Box Score

Phoenixville, PA - The Cairn University men's basketball season came to a close on Tuesday night when the Highlanders were taken down 96-47 by Valley Forge Christian College in the NCCAA East Region Semi-Finals.

Falling behind early wasn't in the game plan for 2nd year Coach Jason Penley and the Highlanders, but it's what happened.... and on a large-scale. After Valley Forge had squeeked ahead 3-0 with a three pointer 36 seconds into the contest, Cairn's Barron Lacy knocked down one of two free-throws, to make it 3-1.

The Highlanders would wait ....and wait... and wait until their next points came.  In fact, 13 minutes and 14 seconds ticked off the clock before Reuben Lacy made a jumper with 5:48 left in the half to earn Cairn their next points of the match. In the mean time, the Patriots had rolled off 33 straight points. Following Lacy's jumper, the Highlanders trailed 36-3. They would find themselves behind 44-18 at halftime.

There were two surprising statistics in the first half. Cairn outscored Valley Forge 15-8 in the final 5 minutes and despite having only one point for a majority of the half, the Highlanders didn't shoot particularly bad. They have had far worse shooting nights and made 35% of their shots in the opening 20 minutes. It was the 18 turnovers that prohibited the Highlanders from even getting shots off.

Not surprisingly, Cairn managed to double the number of field goal attempts and made baskets in the second half by cutting the number of turnovers in the second half from 18 in the first half to 9 in the second. 

That, however, did little to stop the offensive threat of the Patriots who continually scored at will throughout the game. Valley Forge won the second half 52-29, leading to a 96-47 final.

Reuben Lacy led the Highlanders with 14 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. Freshman Kyle Bonner finished with 10 points. Junior guard Charles Hopkins came down with a team-high 8 rebounds.

Jean LeBlanc came off the bench to lead the Patriots with a game-high 21 points. Five other Patriots also reached double figures. Donnell Davis had 19, Michael Ayala (15), Lance Harris (14), Jonathan Dukes (12), and Domenick Bond (11).

Valley Forge will play Lancaster Bible College on Friday for the NCCAA East Region Championship.  

Cairn finished the season 1-25, with their lone win against NEAC opponent Penn St.-Abington.