EASTON, Pa. – Junior Justin Jaworski was almost impossible to stop on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center, netting a career-high 32 points, including a from-the-logo dagger with 2:21 to play, to power the Lafayette men's basketball team past American by a final of 82-70.
 
Down 61-52 with 6:22 to play, Jaworski went on a tear as his four-point play on a three through a foul from the right corner began a game-closing run of 30-9 for the Maroon and White. Fourteen of those 30 came at the hands of the junior co-captain who hit an even bigger shot late.
 
Up 67-65 with 2:21 on the game clock and the shot clock ticking down under 10, he pulled up from the second 'T' in the Lafayette center-court logo and barely hit the rim as the ball went through the cylinder, a dagger to American's hopes of a comeback. On the ensuing possession, senior co-captain Lukas Jarrett emphatically sent back a falling-away layup attempt from American's Sa'eed Nelson, the preseason Patriot League Player of the Year, as Lafayette free throws finished it off with an 82-70 final.
 
Jaworski's career night was his second 30-point outing of the season after dropping 31 on Saint Joseph's on Dec. 3 in Philadelphia. The junior is averaging 17.5 points per game this season and the 32-point game is the highest by a Lafayette player since Matt Klinewski '18 scored 34 against Boston U. on Jan. 8, 2017. Additionally, his four triples moved his career total to 200, one of just eight Leopards to reach the milestone.
 
Classmate E.J. Stephens was another Leopard that accompanied Jaworski effectively on Saturday afternoon, finishing within a bucket of his career-high for the seventh time this season with 18 points on 10-of-11 from the foul line. Stephens added four assists, three rebounds and a steal while drawing six fouls, a game-high in the aggressiveness statistic.
 
Jarrett did pretty much everything else for the Maroon and White, coming up one field goal shy of a double-double with eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds. The senior dished out four assists and blocked a season-best four shots to move into third on Lafayette's all-time career blocks list with 111.
 
The victory propels the Leopards to 14-7 overall this season and 6-4 in Patriot League action, while American falls to 10-11 on the year and 6-4 as well in conference play. Coupled with the women's basketball team's 67-52 victory in Washington, D.C., the two programs have now won a combined six straight games with three straight sweeps of Lehigh, Colgate and American over the past eight days.
 
Sophomore Sean Good's offensive board and put-back through a foul sent a game mostly controlled by defenses early to the opening break at 8-5 in Lafayette's favor. American countered with an 8-0 run for its first lead of the game, but four back from the Leopards made it 15-13 in favor of the home side with 11:53 to play in the opening half.
 
Freshman Leo O'Boyle's triple from the left wing through a foul made for a four-point play that stretched the Lafayette lead to eight under the nine-minute mark, 24-16. The Eagles came back within six at 26-20, but Stephens' emphatic jam over a pair of defenders forced a timeout on the visiting side with the lead up to 13, 33-20.
 
After the timeout, though, American surged on a 12-2 run to cut the Leopard edge to three at the halftime break with the score at 35-32.
 
The visitors took control at the beginning of the second half with a 10-0 run into the 16-minute timeout to regain the lead by five, 44-39. The Eagles moved their advantage as high as nine at the 13:13 mark, but Stephens' baseline jumper cut the deficit to six at 53-47 with 11:14 remaining.
 
American kept the game at a three-possession margin before Jaworski's backdoor cut resulted in a layup off a feed from Jarrett to make it 63-60 with 5:10 to play. The junior's scoop layup through a pair of defenders put Lafayette back on top two minutes later, 67-65, as the game went to its final stretch with Lafayette bound for victory.
 
Senior Cal Reichwein spearheaded the efforts for Saturday's Alzheimer's Awareness Game as the Leopards focused on raising funds to fight the disease that took his grandfather this past year. All proceeds went to the BrightFocus Foundation, an organization that funds exceptional scientific research worldwide to defeat Alzheimer's disease, macular degeneration and glaucoma. Lafayette basketball sends a special thanks to all that supported the cause on Saturday afternoon and in the weeks leading up to the game.
 
The Leopards have a quick turnaround for their next tilt, traveling to Lewisburg, Pa. on Monday for a meeting with Bucknell at 7 p.m. The contest will be aired on national television on CBS Sports Network.