HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The Juniata men's basketball team makes a return to the Landmark Conference Tournament this Wednesday when they travel to Washington, D.C. to take on Catholic. It is the Eagles' first appearance in the Landmark playoffs in three years.
JC, the #4 seed, will play the #1 seed Cardinals at 7 p.m. The other semifinal that night will be #2 Susquehanna against #3 Scranton in Selinsgrove. The winners of both games will meet in the championship game on Saturday with the Landmark title and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament on the line.
The Eagles began the 2015-16 season with an 8-0 record, which was the best start in program history. Included in that start were conference wins over Elizabethtown and Scranton. Juniata had a record of 7-2 in the Landmark with losses only to Drew and the Crusaders in late January.
A four-game losing streak, including a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Rangers, at one point had the Eagles on the outside looking in. Juniata began to right the ship with wins in two of their last three games including the playoff clinching victory over Moravian last Saturday, 67-58.
The offense is led by sophomore Marcus Lee (Carrolltown, Pa./Bishop Carroll), who is averaging 16.7 points per game. Lee has scored in double digits in all but one contest this season and had eight 20+ scoring games. Freshman Brandon Martinazzi (Cresson, Pa./Bishop Carroll) leads the bench with 9.5 points per game and is tied on the team in three-point shots made with 32. He has reached double digit scoring on 10 occasions.
Defensively, the Eagles are giving up 64.4 points per game which is second in the conference only to Scranton's 64.1. Juniata is also the toughest to score from three-point range on as opponents are only converting at a 30.6% clip.
Juniata and Catholic split their series this season. The Eagles claimed the first matchup of the teams at Memorial Gym on January 20, 79-67. The Cardinals got their revenge last Tuesday, 83-60.
Overall, Juniata is making its fourth appearance in the Landmark Tournament. The Eagles qualified in their first season in the conference in 2007-08. As the #4 seed, the Eagles upset top seeded Susquehanna 77-49 but fell to Scranton 64-57 in the championship game. The Eagles would not return until 2011-12 where as the #3, they upset #2 SU 77-58 and once again fell to the Royals by the score of 78-70 in the title game.
The next season saw a reversal of fortune with Juniata knocking off Scranton 84-74 in double overtime. The championship game would be the only other time the Eagles and Cardinals have faced each other in the postseason. In that contest, Juniata led 20-9 seven minutes in before CUA rallied to get to within four at halftime. Juniata led 62-61 with 30 seconds left after two free throws from Alex Raymond. Shawn Holmes missed a jumper on the next possession but knocked the rebound out of bounds off Juniata to keep the Cardinals possession alive. It would be Holmes who took Catholic's final shot of the night. His baseline jumper hit off the near side of the rim before kissing off the front and falling in to give his team the 63-62 lead with three seconds left. The Eagles were able to inbound the ball and give Brian Scholly a chance at three from 10-feet across half court, but the ball banked off short.
There will live stats and video available. Jim Zauzig will provide audio play-by-play.
