A thrilling comeback in the second half and some big plays down the stretch sparked Drew men's basketball to a 58-54 win over the Juniata Eagles on Saturday night.  Drew trailed by six in the second half, but a 15-3 run, during which Lucas Levenson played a starring role, and big buckets from Mike Mayes and Terrell Brown as well as clutch shooting from Kyle Joyce, secured a Landmark Conference victory for Drew (5-12, 2-5).  Jeff Berkey led Juniata (8-10, 3-4) with 17 points on the day. 

In a briskly played first half the Rangers went into the break with a quiet eight point lead, 27-19.  Neither team shot the ball well which accounts for the low score, though both teams played well.  The highlights of the opening period were Terrell Brown's thundering fast break dunk and Mike Mayes' move in transition from which the Juniata defender may still be missing a shoe.  Also key to the Ranger lead was the old Kyle Joyce we all know and love draining two three pointers from well beyond NBA range while barely even hitting the net. 

The lead would not last long as Juniata struck back early in the second half.  Jeff Berkey, a player the Rangers will be thrilled to see graduate, first tied the game with seven quick points and a pair of steals and then put the Eagles up by three, 33-30, with a tough driving layup.  Bruce Knowles' put back with 11:02 left to play in the game gave the guests a 38-32 lead, their largest of the game. 

Too many times this season the Rangers have been on the receiving end of a critical second half run; today, Drew used a key stretch to build the decisive advantage.  The run began innocuously enough with a free throw from Evan Elberg at 10:10 to make it 38-33 to Juniata, but the Rangers would go on to score 14 of the game's next 17 points.  Travis DeNapoli used every bit of his muscular frame to rip down a defensive rebound that set up a key possession as Levenson grabbed his own miss and converted the put back to cut the lead to 38-35.  Mayes found a cutting McNeil Wrice for the next hoop and after a Ryan Jones free throw for the Eagles, Terrell Brown set up Levenson on the break to tie the game.

After Drew forced a turnover at the other end, Mayes found Brown back door for a reverse layup and a Ranger lead.  Dan Sekulski hit a jumper on the wing after a nice feed from Knowles to tie it up, but Mayes hit back with flying layup though he hurt himself in the process.  At this point Head Coach Darryl Keckler was demanding that his team to get a stop on the defensive end and they did just that, though Berkey's long three just did rattle out.  Levenson helped make that stop count by scoring his fifth basket of the second period.  Brown had posted up on the block, but instead kicked out to the freshman center at the elbow where Levenson rolled home a jumper to give Drew a 45-41 lead. 

The Rangers got another stop on the defensive end as Levenson's presence altered a pair of Eagle attempts.  Mayes put in a free throw for a six point lead with 3:30 left to play.  Thirty seconds later, Mayes started a break with a steal near the Ranger hoop that resulted in the junior laying off a pass for a streaking Joyce to finish with ease. 

Juniata responded with a perfectly worked inbound play that Sekulski finished with a jumper.  On their next possession, Sekulski found a curling Jones who dropped in a bucket from the elbow to cut the lead to 48-45 with 1:53 left to play.  Mayes' baseline drive brought it back to five before Matt Regan's strong finish welcomed the final minute of play with a 50-47 scoreline.

Sophomore newcomer Terrell Brown does many things well on the basketball court, but what he does best is score in traffic.  In fact, he is the best finisher at Drew in the last five years (even better than David Cramer C'08) as proven by his three point play with 58 seconds left.  The Eagles pressed the Rangers in the backcourt which left Brown isolated with his defender on the wing.  Brown drove the lane, took a hit on the arm and was still able to finish left handed while falling to the floor.  One thing he does not do well is hit free throws, but he did on the ensuing foul shot to give Drew a 53-47 lead. 

Back at the other end, Ryan Jones hit a pair of foul shots to bring the Eagles to within four and then the Rangers gave them two more chances as they missed front ends of one and ones on consecutive possessions.  Drew survived though as McNeil Wrice came through with the biggest defensive play of the game; Wrice drew a charge on a driving Eagle to wave off a made layup and keep Drew up by five.

With 30 seconds remaining, Keckler showed faith in his struggling junior sharpshooter Kyle Joyce.  Joyce was one of the best marksmen in the nation last season, but has not found his touch this year.  For the Rangers last three possessions every play was run with the specific purpose of getting the ball in Joyce hands so he could knock down some free throws; Joyce obliged by hitting five of six in the final 18 seconds to keep Drew just out of reach, despite one more three pointer by Berkey.  With two seconds remaining in the game, Joyce hit his fifth foul shot of the stretch to secure the 58-54 victory. 

Berkey finished with 17, 12 in the second half, to lead all scorers.  The senior has averaged 17 points per game in his career against the Rangers, despite spending the first two as a sub off the bench.  Sekulski had a solid day off the bench for the Eagles with 11 points and seven boards.  Juniata came into the game hitting 40% from behind the arc made just 4-15 from three and 32.3% overall. 

Mayes finished with 12 points and five assists.  Terrell Brown rounded out his stat line with 14 points, seven boards and three steals.  Levenson's big game saw him set career highs in points (10) and rebounds (8).  Perhaps most encouraging was the play of Kyle Joyce who had 15 points on 3-3 shooting, 2-2 from behind the arc, and 7-8 from the line.  He also recorded three rebounds, a block and an assist.

Drew has won three of four games and has now surpassed last season's win total by two victories.  At 2-5 in the Landmark Conference, the Rangers are still two games off the final playoff spot with the second round of games ahead.  Drew will need to carry all of this momentum with it for the coming seven days as trips to Montclair State, Moravian and Scranton await.

Newspaper Box Score
JUNM vs Drew Rangers
1/23/10 4:00 pm at Baldwin Gym - Madison, NJ
At Baldwin Gym - Madison, NJ
DREW RANGERS 58, JUNM 54
JUNM (8-10,3-4)
Jeff Berkey 7-16 0-0 17; Dan Sekulski 4-8 3-5 11; Alex Raymond 1-7 4-4 7;
Ryan Jones 2-9 3-4 7; Nate Higgins 2-5 0-0 4; Bruce Knowles 2-6 0-3 4; Matt
Regan 2-8 0-2 4; Austin Ankney 0-0 0-0 0; Michael McCarry 0-0 0-0 0; Darnell
Wiley 0-1 0-0 0; Mike Walker 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-62 10-18 54.
DREW RANGERS (5-12, 2-5)
Kyle Joyce 3-3 7-8 15; Terrell Brown 6-11 2-4 14; Mike Mayes 5-13 2-4 12;
Lucas Levenson 5-9 0-0 10; McNeil Wrice 2-4 0-0 4; Pat Dorsey 1-6 0-1 2;
Evan Elberg 0-0 1-2 1; Travis DeNapoli 0-0 0-0 0; Mehmet Onen 0-1 0-0 0.
Totals 22-47 12-19 58.
JUNM.......................... 19 35 - 54
Drew Rangers.................. 27 31 - 58
3-point goals--JUNM 4-15 (Jeff Berkey 3-9; Alex Raymond 1-3; Ryan Jones 0-1;
Mike Walker 0-2), Drew Rangers 2-8 (Kyle Joyce 2-2; Terrell Brown 0-1; Mike
Mayes 0-3; McNeil Wrice 0-1; Pat Dorsey 0-1). Fouled out--JUNM-None, Drew
Rangers-None. Rebounds--JUNM 35 (Dan Sekulski 7; Ryan Jones 7), Drew Rangers
35 (Lucas Levenson 8). Assists--JUNM 10 (Alex Raymond 4), Drew Rangers 10
(Mike Mayes 5). Total fouls--JUNM 15, Drew Rangers 18. Technical
fouls--JUNM-None, Drew Rangers-None. A-157