News Release

YORK, Penn. — With the game on the line on Saturday, the Methodist Monarchs looked to a senior to make the play and Sam Porter did just that.

The forward converted a 3-point play with one second remaining as the Monarchs remained undefeated on the 2004-05 season with a thrilling 71-69 victory over Widener in the York Invitational at Charles Wolf Gym. Methodist is now 3-0 overall, its first 3-0 start to a season since 1995-96.

The Monarchs trailed by 13 points, 47-34 at halftime, but battled throughout the second half to trim down the Widener lead. Seth Thomas twice brought the Monarchs to within two points – his lay-up on a fastbreak made the Pioneer lead 54-52 with nine minutes remaining, and then his 3-point basket trimmed the deficit to 65-63 with 2:12 remaining.

Methodist finally tied the game 65-65 on Bryan Booth’s lay-up, and Jonathan Jackson gave the Monarchs their first lead of the game 68-67 on a 3-point basket with 22 seconds remaining. Widener answered when Brandon Blakely’s lay-up gave the Pioneers a 69-68 lead with six seconds remaining.

But the Monarchs’ Eugene Grant received the inbounds pass and drove to the free throw line, where he made a perfect bounce pass to Porter for the game-winning lay-up. Blakely committed the foul on the play, and Porter converted the free throw.

Thomas scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Methodist, while Porter recorded his second double-double of the season with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Dragan Radmanovic added 11 points. The Monarchs shot 55 percent from the field in the second half, including 40 percent from 3-point range.

For Widener, Matt Scheaffer scored 16 points, followed by Malcolm Thomas with 13 points, Essien Ford with 12 points, Casey Stitzel scored 11 points and Kris Clarkson scored 10 points.

Methodist plays host York on Sunday at 3 p.m. in the championship of the York Invitational.