SJU slams rival; Midd, Macon rebound

More news about: Middlebury | Randolph-Macon | St. John-s
Jan 11, 2020
Zach Hanson shot 9-for-12 from the floor, including this high-percentage shot in the second half.
Photo by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com
  

St. John's took home a win with authority in its rivalry game-turned Top 10 matchup, while Middlebury and Randolph-Macon bounced back from their first losses of the season in Division III men's basketball action on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020.

No. 7 St. John's extended its win streak to 12 games with a convincing 87-70 win at No. 5 St. Thomas on Saturday. The Johnnies (12-1, 8-0 MIAC) made seven of their first eight shots to start the game and six of their first eight to start the second half, building a 66-43 lead and cruising to the road win against its archrival. Zach Hanson led all scorers with 20 points, while Jubie Alade added 18. SJU outrebounded St. Thomas (11-2, 7-1) 35-23 and led wire-to-wire in front of 1,605 fans. Tommy Anderson led UST with 17 points.

Max Bosco hit two free throws with six seconds left to lift No. 3 Middlebury to a 77-76 win against Hamilton, one day after the Panthers lost to Amherst. Tommy Eastman scored a game-high 23 points and added 12 rebounds to lift Middlebury to 14-1, 1-1 in NESCAC play.

The back-and-forth second half was highly contested. With the game tied a 64-64, the Panthers scored the game's next seven points to go up 71-64 with 6:05 remaining. The spark consisted of a three from Matt Folger, an Eastman layup and a dunk from Ryan Cahill. The Continentals (11-3, 1-1) chipped away at the deficit, eventually leading by one (76-75) with 21 seconds remaining. The Panthers were fouled late, with Bosco converting a pair sandwiched around a timeout to put the visitors up 77-76. Hamilton had a last-second shot to win the game, but the shot did not connect.

Miles Mallory recorded his third double-double with 19 points and a season-high 11 rebounds as No. 4 Randolph-Macon downed Ferrum 57-40. Mallory was the only player on either team in double figures, as the Yellow Jackets held Ferrum to a season-low.

No. 14 Babson received a game-high 35 points from Jack Coolahan and held off a late surge by the host No. 23 WPI Engineers as the Beavers secured a 93-81 victory in NEWMAC action. Coolahan went a perfect 13-for-13 from the floor in the game including 5-of-5 from behind the arc en route to his 35 points. He was five away from tying the most field goals in a Division III game without a miss.

No. 1 Swarthmore overcame a 2-for-19 afternoon from 3-point range and won a defensive battle at Franklin & Marshall, 68-53. Nate Shafer tallied a team-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting while gathering a team-high eight rebounds in just 23 minutes. Freshman Vinny DeAngelo sank all eight of his free-throw tries and finished with a season-high 15 points. Turnover numbers were high for both teams with F&M coughing up the ball 23 times and Swarthmore 19 times.

No. 6 Emory has put up a lot of points this year, but it was the Eagles' defense which was the strength on Saturday, forcing 18 turnovers of the University of Rochester and holding the Yellowjackets to just 57 points in a 75-57 home victory. It was the University Athletic Association opener for both teams. Nick Stuck and Lawrence Rowley each totaled 20 points for Emory (11-1). The Yellowjackets (9-3) went on a 13-3 run early in the second half to cut Emory's advantage to three points, but the Eagles answered and put the game away. Other UAA openers saw Justin Hardy hit a bucket in the closing seconds to lift No. 13 Wash U past Chicago, while Case Western Reserve got 27 from freshman Cole Frilling in a win against Carnegie Mellon and Brandeis improved to 9-3 with a 76-71 win at NYU.

No. 24 Wooster made a series of spectacular plays in the final three minutes, and the Fighting Scots hung on for a 70-68 victory, as DePauw's would-be game-winner bounced off the back of the rim. Danyon Hempy donned one of the hero capes for Wooster (11-2, 5-1 NCAC) down the stretch. First, he knocked down a pull-up 3-pointer, which tied the game at 62 with 3:11 remaining. Next, Hempy stole the ball from DePauw's Nolan Ginther. That led to a quick runout, during which junior Brandon Styers beat his man down the floor, collected a perfect pass from Hempy, and finished the fast break with a go-ahead bucket. Later, Hempy had the magic touch on yet another three-ball, this time getting the shot to go down despite double clutching while airborne. That bucket upped Wooster's lead to 69-65 with 34.0 seconds remaining. Aaron Shank twice pulled DePauw (6-7, 3-3) within one in the final minute. He could've done it a third time, and possibly have tied the game at 69 with 10.8 seconds left, but the Tigers' junior was off the mark on the front end of a one-and-one.

Freshman shooting guard Nizair Scott buried back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers in a 61 second span to bust open a tied game as New Jersey City became the first NJAC school to knock off conference-leading Stockton, 78-70. Scott, who had scored just 21 points in limited action over his first seven games in NJCU's 5-8 start, made his presence felt — scoring all of his career-high 11 points during a 16-3 run that put the game firmly in the hands of the visiting Knights. Tied at 58-58, Scott buried threes on three consecutive trips down the floor — burying shots at the 9:16, 8:39 and 8:15 marks — all coming off assists from junior point guard Tarique Holmes.

Brewster Marshall sank a 3-pointer in the closing moments of the second half to send the game into overtime, where he and Alfred went on to defeat Nazareth 103-97. Mike Schmidt threw a baseball pass three-quarters of the way down the court to find Marshall, who tied the game at 85-85. Marshall finished with 21 points, while Sam Dagon had a career-high 32 for Alfred, which improved to 7-6, 1-1 in Empire 8 play. Nazareth, led by Zach Stenglein's 29, fell to 9-4, 1-1.

Drew exploded out of the gate to take a 45-18 lead at halftime and cruised to a 73-41 win against Juniata. Riley Collins paced the Rangers with 13 points as 11 players scored for Drew. The Rangers improved to 11-2 overall and are 2-0 in the Landmark Conference.