By Scott Dudinskie
SELINSGROVE -- Frank Marcinek is going to sleep a little better this week, and he has a couple freshmen to thank for it.
Marcinek, coach of the Susquehanna men's basketball team, was very concerned about his team's defensive rebounding this season. After all, the Crusaders lost Joel Patch, the 2008-09 Landmark Player of the Year, who averaged a conference-best 11.2 boards in his senior season.
"I didn't know where we were going to defensive rebound from," Marcinek admitted Friday.
Cue newcomers J.T. Wilson and Daryl Augustus, who combined for 20 rebounds -- 13 on the defensive glass -- Friday to spark the Crusaders in an 84-48 win over Penn College of Technology in the Pepsi/Weis Markets Tip-Off Tournament at O.W. Houts Gymnasium.
The youngsters' work on the boards helped Susquehanna rebound from a sluggish start and earn a berth in today's title game against Elizabethtown, a 66-57 winner over Wilkes in the other semifinal. The championship game follows the 1 p.m. consolation final.
Wilson, a 6-foot-6 forward from Sparta, N.J., grabbed four defensive rebounds during a 10-0 first-half run that gave Susquehanna a lead it relinquished for only one possession. Augustus, a 6-4 Baltimore native, had defensive boards on three straight Wildcats' trips near the end of the half as the Crusaders pushed their lead to 17 points.
"I think it was huge," said Wilson, who finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds. "Coach definitely praises doing offensive and defensive rebounding; we work it hard in practice every day. Me, Darryl and everyone else are just crashing the boards and trying to help our team."
Susquehanna kept the margin in the 20s for much of the second half, despite playing all but 75 seconds without top returning scorer Spenser Spencer, who left the game with four fouls.
"I have some very athletic young kids," said Marcinek. "A couple of these kids are going to be very good; I just wasn't sure how soon they would be ready."
Penn College (2-1) scored on its first four possessions, twice beating the shot clock with buckets, for an early 9-0 lead a bit more than 3 minutes in. Marcinek called a timeout and Susquehanna responded with a 10-0 run that included a pair of Spencer 3-pointers, Wilson's glass cleaning and five Penn College turnovers.
"Our defense wasn't bad early on, we just didn't guard the full 35 seconds," said Marcinek. "We haven't started our scrimmages well; we didn't start well at Bridgewater (in a season-opening loss); and we didn't start well (Friday). And that's why I shuffled the deck and went to the bench. I just thought our bench could give us a lift with some athleticism."
Leroy Joiner ended his team's near 7-minute drought, briefly giving the Wildcats an 11-10 lead. The Crusaders then scored on seven straight trips to go ahead by 10, then doubled Penn College (30-15) by the 5:31 mark. Augustus had seven points of his 12 points in Susquehanna's 22-4 spurt, and Spencer added five of his team-high 13.
The Wildcats had just five offensive rebounds in the first half, two of them very late.
Wilson finished the half with seven defensive boards, while Augustus added five. Both freshmen started the second half, along with Spencer, senior Bryan Majors and freshman forward Harvey Pannell (11 points). And it just so happened Susquehanna opened the half with a 9-0 run.
"My approach going in was to play the upperclassmen, kids who that have been around before," said Marcinek. "The group I started in the second half I felt very good with, and they'll probably see a lot of time."
"I think we're very good," Wilson said of the Crusaders' freshman class. "We can definitely help the team and hopefully get a lot of wins."
