Box Score 2/13/25
 
NEWTON, NJ – Lackawanna College men's basketball was a step slow almost all night, and Sussex County CC earned an upset victory, taking down the Falcons, 87-77, on Thursday night in a Region XIX crossover match-up in New Jersey.
 
The Falcons (15-13) came into the contest rolling, averaging over 85 points per game and hitting 47.8% from the floor on their four-game winning streak. Early on, they held an 8-5 lead just three minutes in, but a brutal stretch that went seven minutes saw the Falcons make just one basket. Meanwhile, the Skylanders (8-18) went on a 16-2 run in that span, taking a 21-10 lead on Lackawanna just past the halfway point of the first half.
 
Back-to-back three-pointers from Evan Laybourn-Boddie (Scranton, PA) cut the Lackawanna deficit to 21-16 with about 8:30 remaining in the opening half, but turnovers and missed shots plagued the Falcons. Sussex kept pushing the pace, getting the lead as high as 18, taking that 46-28 advantage into halftime.
 
That was where the game sat for the majority of the second half. Lackawanna closed to 48-39 at the 15:25 mark thanks to a long Laybourn-Boddie three-pointer. That would be the last field goal the Falcons hit for nearly six minutes, as Sussex used a suffocating 11-1 run to suck the air out of the Lackawanna sails, until Laybourn-Boddie scored a driving lay-up with 9:10 to go that made it 59-42, Skylanders.
 
Through the rest of the game, the Falcons desperately tried to close the gap. At the 3:15 mark, Laybourn-Boddie made a pair of free throws to get Lackawanna within nine at 73-64. Sussex went 0-for-2 from the line, grabbed the offensive board, and then missed the follow-up, but the Falcons couldn't capitalize with a three-pointer up top.
 
As time continued to tick away, the Falcons kept hunting for three-pointers and quick buckets. Trailing 77-64 with under two to go, Lackawanna initially threw the ball away. The Falcons managed to turn Sussex over, and Jasier Carter (North Brunswick, NJ) raced to the bucket and scored with about 1:50 to play. Sussex missed two free throws, and Carter scored on a spinning lay-up again to get Lackawanna within nine. Carter got another steal and quickly got the ball to Noah McIntosh (Philadelphia, PA), who scored a lay-up to bring Lackawanna within 77-70 with 1:15 to play.
 
The Falcons forced another turnover after a timeout and got the ball back with 1:13 to play. Laybourn-Boddie hit a runner in the lane with just over a minute to go to make it 77-72, but a breakdown in the press for the Falcons gave Sussex an easy lay-up to get the lead back to seven. A quick miss in the lane for Lackawanna, followed by two free throws for the Skylanders, made it 81-72 with under 50 seconds to go. Jaden McMeekin (Pittsburgh, PA) hit a three-pointer on the right wing to make it 81-75, but Sussex would make its free throws, and the Falcons wouldn't be able to make up the difference.
 
Laybourn-Boddie led Lackawanna with 19 points. Carter added 16 points, while Jireej Cole (Bronx, NY) contributed 12 points. McMeekin had seven points off the bench. Kendrick Davis led Sussex with 23 points, while Jayshon Williams scored 15 points and Ed Dorbor added 14 points.
 
The loss snaps a four-game winning run for Lackawanna, and it is the first time since 1988 that Lackawanna has dropped a game to Sussex. Prior to the first match-up earlier this season, Lackawanna and Sussex had not played since the 2006-2007 campaign, but the two teams had played two games per season for the years leading up to that.
 
Lackawanna College will now look to bounce back in non-region action at home, as the Falcons get set to host SUNY Westchester CC on Saturday, February 15^th. Tip-off will be at 3:00pm ET inside the historic Lackawanna College Student Union gymnasium, and the game will be the second of a doubleheader, with the Lackawanna women hosting Salem CC first at 1:00pm ET. It will be the annual Sophomore Day celebration for the Falcons, as Lackawanna will honor the departing sophomores from both the men's and women's teams.