If two overtime losses and a seven-point defeat in its last four outings weren't enough for Elizabethtown College's men's basketball team to realize things are never easy in the Commonwealth Conference, the Blue Jays were reminded again Tuesday night.
Problem is, this latest reminder might have put a severe hurt on what once was a stellar season.
Despite building a 25-point lead with 4:37 left in the first half, E-town fell victim to a furious second-half surge from Widener and dropped an 88-77 Commonwealth decision to the Pride Tuesday night in Thompson Gym.
In addition to leaving the Blue Jays (1-4 Commonwealth, 14-5 overall) alone in last place in the conference standings, the loss put E-town's chances of making the Commonwealth playoffs on life support with five conference games remaining.
"Yes," E-town senior guard and Pequea Valley product Mike Schatzmann said, when asked if Tuesday's game was a must win. "People might say differently, but I disagree."
One of those people speaking differently, after taking a little while to put things in perspective Tuesday night, was E-town coach Bob Schlosser.
"It's a devastating loss for us," he said. "But with six teams (in the conference) and taking four (to the playoffs), I think we can be in that top four.
"I don't think we have to win all five (remaining games), but we have three on the road (at Messiah Saturday, at Lebanon Valley on Feb. 16 and at Widener Feb. 23), so we're going to have to win a couple of road games."
Something Widener looked to have no chance of doing Tuesday, when it watched E-town — powered by 14 first-half points from senior guard Chad Piersol, 10 from sophomore center Mike Church (Solanco) and eight from Schatzmann — embark on a 27-6 run that give it a commanding 43-18 lead with 4:37 left until the break.
E-town's 50 percent shooting from the floor and forcing 13 Pride turnovers in the first half helped fuel that surge.
Soon after, while "challenging" his players at halftime, Widener coach Chris Carideo decided it was time for a massive change.
"I said throw out all the game plan things we worked on the last two days and do what we normally do at practice," Carideo recalled. "Which is press and get out in transition."
Little did Carideo know, the issue that would eventually kill E-town was also about to surface.
Despite using its up-tempo attack to force 15 E-town turnovers in the second half, Widener still trailed 64-50 with 12:02 to play.
But when the Pride got points from five different players during a 14-4 run over the next 5:26, Widener was suddenly down by a bucket, 68-66.
"Part of it was fatigue," said Schlosser, referring to the substitutions he made at times. "I knew I was playing Schatzmann, Piersol and (Phil) Schaffer long minutes, but I felt we were up enough that we could hold on. But defensively we were just gassed.
"Ultimately I have to take the blame. Up 23, I should have found a way to figure it out a little bit better, and I didn't."
Meanwhile, the Pride (17-3, 3-2) kept rolling along.
After Widener's Nyere Miller (17 points) nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing to tie it at 69 with 5:50 remaining, his bucket on the break gave the Pride the lead for good, 73-71 with 5:02 left.
In the end, six Widener players had reached double figures, led by Matt Sosna's game-high 22 points.
"It's going to be tough (to rebound)," Schatzmann said. "But I'm going to talk to some of the senior guys, and let them know that in two and a half weeks this could be over forever. Hopefully we can turn this ship around."
E-mail: jfulginiti@lnpnews.com