Gaye finished the night 10-for-16 from the floor, grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, and racked up seven blocked shots altering several more as the Griffins built a 16-point halftime lead and cruised to the 21-point victory. The win gives the Griffins, the top team in the Mid-Atlantic region, an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament with seedings to be released Sunday evening.
Gwynedd-Mercy senior Corey Cann (Abington, PA/Abington) opened the scoring with five straight points on fast breaks, and following Gaye’s first bucket, hit again to make it 9-0 Griffins with 2:39 gone by. Alvernia senior Ray Strickland (Chester, PA/Chester) finally got the Crusaders on the board with a pair of free throws at 16:47. The lead was back to nine, 22-13, after a Jeff Thomas (Philadelphia, PA/St. John Neumann) bucket at 8:31. Alvernia cut the gap to four with a two from senior Cornell Merricks (Philadelphia, PA/Norristown) and Strickland’s first of two 3s. Strickland answered a Thomas bucket to stay within four at 24-20, but Gwynedd-Mercy scored 12 straight led by four each from Gaye and senior Jolon Davis (Bristol, PA/Harry S. Truman) to take a 36-20 lead with 3:07 left in the first half. The lead grew to 19 in the final minute before Merricks hit a 3 from the right corner at the first-half buzzer to send the Crusaders to the break down 42-26.
Alvernia freshman Akeem Washington (Lancaster, PA/McCaskey) and Gaye exchanged post moves to open the second half, before Alvernia sophomore Mike Brock (Royersford, PA/Spring Ford) nailed a 3 to cut the gap to 13. Gwynedd-Mercy quickly pushed the lead back to 19 sparked by two from Gaye. Strickland then nailed his second 3 of the night and the Crusaders hit five free throws to cut the deficit back down to 13, 54-41, with 12:04 to play. Alvernia had a look at a 3 that would have cut the lead to 10, but the Crusaders went without a bucket from the field over the next 5:10 as the Griffins rattled off a 15-1 run to put the game away.
Thomas scored 17 points for the Griffins to go with 10 rebounds and Cann finished with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Strickland paced the Crusaders’ efforts with 22 points, 10 rebounds. Merricks was the only other Crusader to reach double-figures with 19.