By John Boccacino/Sports Information Director
All season, the student-athletes on the Keuka College men's basketball team have followed the same philosophy: work hard, play aggressive defense, and run an efficient offense through their talented post players.
The formula yielded Keuka's winningest season in nearly a decade, as the Wolfpack bring a 15-9 overall record (11-6 in the NEAC) into Saturday's North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) semifinal clash with Lancaster Bible College (23-2, 17-1 NEAC).
Keuka and Lancaster Bible will tip at 2 p.m. Saturday in Lancaster, Pa., with the winner advancing into the NEAC championship, 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
Penn State-Abington (10-16, 8-10) plays NEAC North champion SUNY Cobleskill (15-10, 13-4) at 4 p.m. Saturday in the other semifinal.
The NEAC champion receives the conference's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III tournament.
Live video from the NEAC Final Four contests can be viewed here.
Since the NEAC was realigned for the 2004-05 season, Keuka has never won a men's basketball championship, with the program previously reaching the conference semifinals three times: during the 2004-05, 2005-06, and 2006-07 seasons.
The Wolfpack, who have recorded their most wins in a season since the 2005-06 squad went 16-10, are seeking their first win in four semifinal appearances.
In the lone regular season meeting between the two schools, Lancaster Bible earned a 66-57 win over Keuka on Jan. 23.
Senior Trevor Healey (Wethersfield, Conn./Wethersfield) scored a season-high 28 points and added nine rebounds, but the Chargers won their 13th straight. Healey shot 64.7 percent from the floor (11 of 17) and snared four of Keuka's 10 offensive rebounds.
Junior Casey Williams (Syracuse, N.Y./Jamesville-DeWitt) added 9 points with 7 rebounds and 5 assists, and senior Tyler Hixson (Shortsville, N.Y./Red Jacket) had 8 points with 3 rebounds and 2 steals in the loss.
Lancaster Bible shot 52.4 percent for the game (22 of 42), including 66.7 percent on '3s' (10 of 15).
The Wolfpack, who trailed for much of the first half and all of the second, clawed within 53-50 on a layup from Healey with 4:58 remaining.
Following a layup from C.J. Dunston, senior Adam Starks (Wellsville, N.Y./Andover) answered with a lay-in off a feed from junior Miles Boyer (East Rochester, N.Y./East Rochester) to trim the deficit to 55-52 with 3:50 remaining.
But the Chargers used an 8-0 run to pull away for the win.
"I'm very confident in us and I feel like if we play our game well like we did the first time (against Lancaster Bible), we will win," said Williams, Keuka's second leading scorer (12.7 ppg.) and rebounder (6.8 rpg.).
"Lancaster Bible made some shots in crunch time during our first matchup. If we can make big shots in crunch time and have success on defense, we will be fine. I'm excited to get a chance to play them again with a spot in the championship game" on the line.
Keuka is led by Healey, a three-time All-NEAC forward who was named first-team All-NEAC after leading the Wolfpack in scoring (17.3 ppg.) and rebounding (8.1 rpg.), and who is second in field goal percentage (51.5%).
Hixson (9.7 ppg., 3.4 rpg., team-best 52.5% shooting from the floor) is another solid post player for the Green and Gold, while Boyer and freshman Cliff Stevens (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa) give fifth-year head coach Thad Phillips quality minutes in the paint.
Keuka is eighth in the NEAC in scoring offense (66.3 ppg.) and is fourth in defense (65.3 ppg.). The Chargers are second in defense (62.6 ppg.) and third in offense (74 ppg.).
Lancaster Bible boasts four student-athletes averaging 11 or more points per game: Dunston (14.8 ppg., 8.8 rpg., NEAC-leading 64.9% on field goals), Dondre Perry (13.4 ppg. on 53.7% shooting), Albert Suniga (11.3 ppg.), and Naheer Mirza (11 ppg.).
Dunston was named the NEAC's Player of the Year and landed on the first-team, while Suniga was named second-team, and Mirza and Perry earned third-team all-conference honors.
Keuka and Lancaster Bible each rank in the top four in the NEAC in field goal shooting and 
three-point shooting. Lancaster Bible leads the conference in field goal shooting (49.6%) and Keuka is third (45.6%), while the Chargers are third in '3s' (38%) and Keuka is fourth (36.9%).
"Lancaster Bible is an unbelievably talented team, but we just had to focus on us and not worry too much about what they do," said junior point guard Vinney Zambito (Elba, N.Y./Batavia Notre Dame), who is coming off a 14-point, 5-assist, 3-steal game in the NEAC quarterfinals.
"We have to play our brand of basketball, which is a little ugly at times. We pride ourselves on playing good defense, and on offense, we like to slow the game down and try to pound the ball inside to our talented big men. If we play our style of basketball, hopefully we will give them our best shot and come out a winner."
Keuka, the No. 2 seed from the North Division, knocked off Cazenovia College, the North's No. 3 seed, 78-69 Tuesday night to advance into the semifinals.
Williams scored 12 straight points in the second half and finished with a career-high 26 points to power the Wolfpack. Williams was one of four Keuka student-athletes to score in double-figures against the Wildcats (12-14). Hixson added 12 points, and Healey had 11 points with seven rebounds in the win.
Williams shot 60 percent from the floor (9 of 15) and made 71.4 percent of his three-pointers (5 of 7) to help Keuka earn its first NEAC postseason victory since the 2009-10 season, the last time the Green and Gold made the tournament.
Starks added nine points with four rebounds, and Boyer snared six rebounds in the win.
