Alvernia raced out to an 18-11 lead hitting six 3s and never trailed after that. Sophomore Terrence Shawell (Pottstown, PA/Pottstown) led the Crusaders (20-4, 15-2 PAC) with 19 points. Alvernia reached the 20-win mark for the ninth time in the history of the program and the fifth time in the past six seasons.
Alvernia senior Garrett Etzel (Shillington, PA/Governor Mifflin) moved within 15 points of 1,000 for his career. He and freshman Matt King (Phoenixville, PA/St. Pius X) both hit three 3s and finished with13 points. Sophomore center Tyrone Bradley (Chester, PA/Chester) was 4-for-4 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the line to reach double figures with 10 points.
College Misericordia (10-14, 8-9 PAC) got a team-high 12 points from Tony Resykowski (Dimock, PA/Elk Lake) and 11 from Vinny Baumunk (Dushore, PA/Sullivan County). The Cougars will need a win at Wesley on Thursday and an Arcadia loss to Marywood to qualify for the PAC Championship. Alvernia, which locked up the top seed last week, will have a first round bye and host a semifinal next Tuesday.
Etzel hit the first 3 of the night for the Crusaders to knot the score at 3-3 and Shawell followed with three straight over the next four minutes. Etzel knocked down his second and King followed with his first as the Crusaders posted the early seven-point lead.
Misericordia trimmed the early gap to five points on two occasions, but Alvernia built its advantage to 14 points, 31-17, when senior guard Ryan Finger (Lancaster, PA/Lampeter Strasburg) knocked down his first 3-point bucket of the season.
The host Cougars came back with seven straight points to cut the lead in half. Ryan Roa (Matamoras, PA/Delaware Valley) scored all seven of his points on the four-minute stretch, but King hit a layup before back-to-back Shawell buckets as the Crusaders built a 37-26 lead at the break.
Alvernia scored the first six points of the second half to push the gap to 17 points, 43-26, and the lead remained 14 or more for the remainder of play.
Alvernia will travel to Eastern University on Wednesday for an 8:00 p.m. game with the Eagles. Eastern is still fighting for postseason position and with a win could finish as high as second place. Etzel is looking to become the 19th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.
Alvernia 66, Misericordia 49