If in recent seasons the Lebanon Valley College men’s basketball team has found itself in, well, a valley, let the record show that the players now believe they have climbed out of the abyss – that the squad’s outlook, much like its winning percentage, is vastly different than before.
Different because senior center Evin Timochenko is (knock on wood) healthy, and classmate Ryan Harder has taken yet another step in his development; because the team, which features five seniors in all, has been around the block a time or two; and because freshman guard Jason Penn seemingly can’t miss a shot.
The bottom line is that LVC is 5-3. The fact that the Dutchmen have lost three in a row since a 5-0 start might seem concerning. But Harder, a 6-5 wing, believes this is a different team than the one that went 8-17 in 2023-24 and 7-18 each of the two seasons before that.
“The last three years, we’ve kind of rolled over almost and quit,” he said. “This year, we’re just battling.”
The Dutchmen opened the season with three-point victories over Cairn and Lancaster Bible College, the latter in overtime. Two games later, they outlasted Penn College in double OT. Losers to Albright, Stevenson, and Gwynedd Mercy in recent weeks, they have three more non-conference games before opening Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom play on Jan. 8 against Stevens.
They are obviously seeking to regain their early mojo, but the larger goal is to attain their first winning record for a full season since ’17-18 when the Dutchmen went 18-10. (They also went 8-3 in the COVID-shortened ’20-21 campaign.)
Timochenko, a 6-6 center from Wilson High School via The Hill School, pulled no punches when asked what it would mean for the team to have a big year.
“Everything,” he said. “I feel like that’s just what we deserve. Guys have put the time in the program. Guys have put the work in on the court, (in the) offseason weight room. Been there together. So, I feel like it would mean everything, man. To go out on a high note, that’s something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives, especially since we’re such a close-knit group.”
Timochenko began the season with a 33-point, 19-rebound outburst against Cairn, and has logged five double-doubles to date. Overall, he leads the Freedom with an average of 13.8 boards a game, and his 17.3 scoring clip is sixth in the conference and second on the team to Harder (18.1), who is tied for third in the league.
If Timochenko seems eager to make up for lost time, there is ample reason for it. He missed the entire ’22-23 season with a knee injury and sat out seven games a year ago because of repeated ankle sprains.
This season, he said he was “destroyed” by illness in the days leading up to the Stevenson game, resulting in a 1-for-6, three-point showing (albeit with 11 boards). Other than that, his body is holding up, in no small part because he is taking the necessary precautions to ensure he is right.
“Before, I used to be dumb,” he said, noting in particular that he would often go without having his ankles taped before playing in pickup games.
Now, he makes sure to take that step, among others.
“I’m just really trying to put the time in and take care of my body,” he said. “It’s a huge thing, just trying to prevent every injury possible.”
Harder has likewise done his due diligence, fully embracing offseason workouts and, as a result, improving his scoring average from 3.2 as a freshman to its current heights while bumping his shooting percentage from 39.4 his first season to 51.9 now.
His motivation?
“That we haven’t been winning,” he said. “That is the No. 1 thing that has pushed me to get better and work on my weaknesses in the offseason. Just try to push us to that next level.”
There are certain things that are out of his control, one of them being the team’s performance before his mom, Laura, and other team mothers whip up a postgame meal for the Dutchmen.
“Every time she prepares a meal,” veteran coach Brad McAlester said with a laugh, “we get swamped.”
Sure enough, Laura did so the day of the Stevenson game, and LVC fell flat as a pancake, losing 60-51.
“I told her, ‘You can do the meals, but it’s got to be a surprise; we can’t know about it before,’” Ryan said.
Certainly, Penn, a 6-foot, 150-pound freshman from Vienna, Virginia, has done all he can to offset whatever has befallen LVC, whether in the culinary realm or otherwise. He is scoring at a healthy 14.4 point-per-game clip while playing 23 minutes a game off the bench, and all his shooting percentages – 63.6 from the floor, 77.3 from the 3-point line, and 96.6 from the foul line – lead the conference.
Mull all that a moment. Consider, in particular, his work from the arc, where 40 percent is good, and 45 percent is Steph Curry-like. Penn has made 17 of his 22 3-point attempts, and over his last five games he is a sizzling 15-for-17 from deep. That string began with his 6-for-7 sniping against (appropriately) Penn College, a game in which he notched 29 points, his high-water mark to date.
All of this sounds impossible, but his teammates are no longer surprised.
“Even in practice,” Harder said, “he doesn’t miss shots.”
“The kid’s unreal,” Timochenko said. “Really hard worker, too. Great guy. Really humble. Probably doesn’t shoot enough, honestly.”
Penn comes from a family of high achievers. His dad, Steve, is a data scientist, and his mom, Necois, is a biochemist. Jason, who has a younger brother, is majoring in computer science himself, but his on-court numbers almost don’t compute with the public at large.
Not that he’s dwelling on that, mind you.
“I’m not really thinking too much,” he said. “It’s really just trust my instincts and take the shots, and also my teammates are finding me in the correct spot, so I always know when I have to take that shot – when it’s a good shot, when it’s a bad shot. It’s definitely something that I’m learning, but it’s going well for me right now, so I really don’t have to change anything yet.”
He will become a starter soon – McAlester said as much – and certainly, Penn is well past the point of surprising opponents; every coach surely has his name highlighted on the scouting report by now. Going forward he will see better defenders and more physical play. There will be harder days and tougher nights.
But there’s no reason not to ride this out. And to hear him tell it, his teammates are only too happy to provide the vehicle.
“I’ve come into a (new) space before,” he said, recalling in particular when he was promoted to the varsity midway through his freshman year at George C. Marshall High School. “It wasn’t really horrible in high school, but it was definitely a space where everyone wasn’t as welcoming as they are here. … It was definitely more intimidating than it was coming here. Everyone greets you with a smile. Everyone on the team is definitely friendly. So, it definitely makes that adjustment a lot easier.”
Goodness knows that many of them know what tough times look and feel like. Goodness knows that they know what it’s like to be down in the valley, the valley so low. Now that they’ve inched upward, they very much want to explore new horizons and venture as far away from the abyss as they possibly can. Maybe it’s what they deserve, as Timochenko asserted. Time will tell. It always does.
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