There were plenty of keys to the Elizabethtown College men's basketball team's come-from-behind win Wednesday.

But above all, when Pequea Valley High grad Mike Schatzmann starting raining threes in the second half, it kick-started the Blue Jays to their 73-71 victory over visiting Scranton in Thompson Gymnasium.

"I came out and they were in that zone, and I took four shots in a row and they were threes and they went in," said Schatzmann, who scored a game-high 23 points — all in the second half — including a career-high six of seven 3-pointers. "Everything just kind of went from there."

The game featured a pair of 4-0 teams. The game was a test for an E-town team, coming off a 9-15 season, that was unsure of how good it was.

"This was the best team we've played by far," said Elizabethtown coach Bob Schlosser. "We knew this was going to be our first real test because of their size, their experience, their inside-outside game."

"We're definitely a good team, but we definitely have things we need to work on," said Schatzmann. "It's still early in the season, but this is huge for us.

"We couldn't do this last year. We couldn't finish games last year."

Among the other keys for the Blue Jays were career highs of 10 assists for starting point guard Paul Schaffer and eight rebounds by reserve forward Bryce Rodgers; Schaffer's key draw of a charge with 4.2 seconds to play; the play of the Blue Jay bench; and Schatzmann's steal to ice the game after he missed a foul shot that would have put E-town up by three with 3.5 seconds to play.

But it was Schatzmann's two 3-point barrages that got the Blue Jays back in the game. The first was a series of treys over a one-minute, 44-second span that cut Scranton's biggest lead of the game of 12 points, 45-33, to three, 47-44, with 13:29 to play.

The Royals used a long-range explosion of their own to rebuild the lead to 11 as Zach Ashworth hit all four of his 3-pointers over the next 5:29. His trey at the 8:00 mark made it 64-53.

But E-town clawed its way back with a combined defensive effort and solid shooting, hitting eight of its last 10 shots, including three more Schatzmann 3-pointers.

"Everybody's pointing to this three or that three, but I think it's the rebounding, I think it's the defense, I think it's the hustle plays," said Schlosser, whose team shot 68.2 percent in the second half after going just 11-for-36 (30.6 percent) — including 1-for-11 from 3-point range — in the first half.

Schatzmann's 3-pointer with 58 seconds left gave E-town its first lead, 70-68, since 3:12 left until halftime.

Scranton point guard Randy Arnold, who had 13 points and five steals, calmly answered, pulling up and nailing a 3-pointer 14 seconds later, but Chad Piersol hit the last two of his 19 points on a jumper from the foul line with 19 seconds to play for a 72-71 edge.

Schaffer then drew the charge as Ashworth drove to the basket — one of many close charging calls.

"Isn't it ironic. I said to the official in the first five minutes there were three block-charge calls and they all went against us," said Schlosser. "But at the end when we needed to take a charge, we did. ...

"And there were another one or two in the second half; those are defensive plays that make you or break you."

Following the charge, Schatzmann was quickly fouled, made the first foul shot but missed the second, with the Royals' Tom Bicknell grabbing the rebound. But as Bicknell was harassed by Rodgers on the baseline, his somewhat errant pass was alertly picked off by Schatzmann, and the clock ran out.

"I think it's the mental plays. Schatzmann misses a foul shot at the end ... but is smart enough not to hang his head," said Schlosser. "That's the experience of Mike Schatzmann right there, just continuing to play."

Rodgers finished with 11 points for the Blue Jays, who also got significant minutes from reserve Keith Fogel, and smaller, but important, contributions from subs Matt Stein, Jordan Dirago, Nick Kennedy and Ben Schlosser, the coach's son.

"We played more guys then they did. ... Those guys held the fort for us, which allowed Mike and Chad to catch their breath," said coach Schlosser.

Bicknell had 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds for Scranton and Ashworth led with 16 points.

Elizabethtown, which is 5-0 for the first time since the 1996-97 season, will try to improve to 6-0 for the first time since the same season when it travels to Bible Baptist Saturday at 3 p.m. The Blue Jays then host a big local battle against Millersville next Wednesday.

CONTACT US: pglatfelter@LNPnews.com or 291-8777