2/11/25
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – Another dominant performance at home sent Lackawanna College men's basketball to its fourth straight victory, as the Falcons blew past County College of Morris, 82-58, on Tuesday evening inside the historic Lackawanna College Student Union gymnasium in Region XIX Division II play.
 
The Falcons (15-12, 7-5) took an early lead in the first half and ran the rest of the way to victory, opening a double-digit advantage at the 7:35 mark in the first half, and never seeing the lead dip below ten the rest of the way. Lackawanna shot 41.2% from the floor in the first half and ticked that number up to 45.7% from the floor in the second, scoring 41 points in each half. Morris (10-14, 6-5), which came in averaging 80 points per game and shooting around 44% for the year, was held 22 points below its average and shot just 30% for the game, including a woeful 3-for-21 from downtown.
 
Both teams struggled out of the gate, but the Falcons slowly built an 11-4 advantage through the first seven minutes of game time. Morris rallied to cut the deficit to 11-10 with 11:19 to play in the first, but Lackawanna countered with a 16-3 run over the next 4:15 of game time, capped by an Evan Laybourn-Boddie (Scranton, PA) three-point shot to push the Lackawanna advantage to 27-14 at 7:06. Lackawanna College extended that lead to as much as 18 points, before Morris hit a jumper in the lane with four seconds left to make it 41-26 at the break.
 
Anticipating a run to start the second, Lackawanna hit the gas pedal right out of the half, going on a 9-2 run through the first three minutes to extend the lead out to 50-27. Later, with the Falcons ahead 52-32 with 15:25 to play, Laybourn-Boddie hit back-to-back three-pointers, sandwiching a jumper for the Titans, which extended Lackawanna's lead out to 58-34. He hit another one a few minutes later, pushing the Lackawanna lead to 25.
 
Morris couldn't get its offense on track in the second half. After hitting a shot to get within 20 at 64-44 with 10:06 to play, the Titans went the next eight minutes without making a shot from the field. In that span, Lackawanna extended its lead from +20 to +35, taking an 80-45 lead at the 2:44 mark on a breakaway dunk from Noah McIntosh (Philadelphia, PA). The rest of the game was academic from there, as the Falcons saw out the clock to secure the victory.
 
The Falcons were led in scoring by Laybourn-Boddie, who finished with a game-high 29 points on 11-for-19 shooting, hitting five three-pointers and dishing out four assists. Jireej Cole had ten points and ten rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season, while Elijah Smith (Washington, D.C.) scored seven points and grabbed eight rebounds.
 
Matthew Niedermaier led Morris with ten points. Zahir Carter and Zander Anyanwu each came off the bench to score nine points. Leading scorer Jagger Ruiz was held to just two points in 18 minutes.
 
It was a runaway result for the Falcons, who needed a win to have hope at a three-seed in the Region XIX DII tournament at the end of the month. The win puts the Falcons (7-5) in third place, for now, in the latest region standings. Morris (6-5) is currently in fourth, but still has a game to play in region. If Morris wins that game, the Titans and the Falcons will both sit at 7-5 in region play. Since each team split their series this year, the second tiebreaker is record against teams ranked ahead of them in descending order. Morris would own that tiebreaker, by virtue of their two wins against Raritan Valley CC this season. So, if Morris wins its remaining Region XIX DII game, the Titans would be the three-seed, while Lackawanna would be the fourth. If Morris loses its remaining region game, the Falcons would secure the three-seed.
 
Lackawanna has completed its Region XIX DII regular season, but the Falcons do have three non-region games remaining in the regular season. Its next contest will be on Thursday, February 13^th, when the Falcons travel to take on Region XIX Division III opponent Sussex County CC in a crossover contest. Tip is scheduled for 6:00pm ET in Newton, NJ. Lackawanna beat Sussex, 95-81, at home earlier this season.