On Sat., Macs fall flat

Feb 05, 2022
Farmingdale State athletics file photo
 

Farmingdale State handed Yeshiva its first conference loss since 2019, Division III got another 2,000-point scorer and Marietta's seniors came up big on Senior Night in Saturday's Division III men's basketball action.

Farmingdale State got great open looks at the basket and cashed them in as the Rams knocked off No. 6 Yeshiva 79-75. It's the first loss to a Skyline Conference team for the Maccabees since Feb. 24, 2019. Farmingdale State (14-7, 10-2) led throughout, on the road, increasing its lead to as many as 16 points, 67-51, at the midway point of the second half. Yeshiva (18-2, 11-1) rallied to take a 75-74 lead with a Gabe Leifer jump shot with 1:13 left, but Nick Hurowitz answered with a layup, Leifer and Turell each missed shots, and Hurowitz wrapped it up with a pair of free throws with less than one second left. 

Hurowitz finished with a team-high 15 points as the Rams shot 10-for-17 from 3-point range. Yeshiva shot 10-for-19 from beyond the arc as well, led by Ryan Turell's 21 points, as Turell came off the bench on senior night.

Jordan Johnson came into Saturday needing 26 points to reach 2,000 for his career, and he got that and a little more as Concordia (Wis.) held off Benedictine 81-77. Johnson finished with 34 points, plus a team-high seven assists, helping the Falcons improve to 11-9, 10-5 NACC. CUW rallied to cut Benedictine's lead to 59-57 midway through the second half before Johnson took over. He went on to score the next 25 of 27 Falcon points for the rest of the game.

Roanoke started the second half on a 12-3 run to take a 48-45 lead at top-ranked Randolph-Macon, and remained close at 55-54, but the Yellow Jackets responded with a 15-4 spurt and went on to win 72-67. It was the 14th consecutive win for Randolph-Macon, which improved to 20-1. Miles Mallory led four Yellow Jackets in double figures with 19 points. Efosa U-Edosomwan led Roanoke with 21 points, shooting 10-for-12 from the floor.

Jason Ellis poured in 32 points and Lukas Isaly added 24 as the pair of seniors led No. 3 Marietta to a Senior Day home win against John Carroll, 88-74. The two combined to shoot 13-for-25 from 3-point range. The game featured 15 lead changes and John Carroll (7-11, 2-9) led as late as 11:14 to go in the game, when Isaly completed a three-point play with a free throw to tie it at 53. Marietta improved to 18-2, 13-0, winning its 16th consecutive game.

Ethan Anderson scored a team-high 18 points and added nine rebounds and Wyatt Cook added 15 points as UW-La Crosse held off UW-Eau Claire 73-64 on Saturday evening. The eighth-ranked Eagles outrebounded the Blugolds 38-28 in improving to 18-3, 8-3 in the WIAC. UW-La Crosse kept pace with No. 5 UW-Oshkosh, which rolled past UW-Stout 84-57 behind 19 points from Hunter Plamann, 18 from Cole Booth and 15 apiece from Levi Borchert and Eddie Muench.

Dominic Bledsoe hit the game-winning pull-up jumper with 2.9 seconds remaining as St. Olaf handed No. 22-ranked Augsburg its first MIAC loss of the season, 77-73. St. Olaf (11-9, 7-8) led by as many as a dozen in the second half, but Augsburg (14-3, 11-1) battled back from a 10-point deficit with 5:02 to go to tie the game at 73-73 on a three-point play by Joe Palmer with 29 seconds remaining. On the ensuing possession, the Oles ran the clock down before Bledsoe hit a mid-range jumper from the right wing to deliver the game-winning shot with just under three seconds to go. It was the Oles' first win against a nationally ranked team since a 75-62 win against St. John's in February 2018.

Chase Ridenour scored a game-high 27 points, Myles Rasnick added 23 and JR Sanders had 11 points, 13 assists and five steals as No. 12 Maryville won at Huntingdon 95-80. It was the 13th consecutive win for the Scots, whose only loss is a 78-69 setback at Emory (now 14-4) on Nov. 28. Ridenour shot 7-for-9 from 3-point range in the win.

WPI won a battle of conference co-leaders in the NEWMAC as the No. 24 Engineers shot 60 percent from the floor in the opening half, opening up a 49-31 lead en route to an 83-64 win at Babson. John Lowther scored a game-high 26 points, while John Adams had 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season. WPI improves to 18-2 on the season and 9-1 in conference play while the Babson slips to 15-6, 8-2.

Freshman Carl Schaller spun in for a game-winning layup with a second and a half remaining and Gettysburg got past Ursinus 79-77 to remain in third in the Centennial behind Swarthmore and Johns Hopkins. Ryan Hughes poured in a game-high 35 points, including a game-tying 3-pointer with 20 seconds remaining. But Schaller took the ball following a time out and calmly dribbled down the clock from outside the arc. When the clock ticked down to about eight seconds, the freshman slid off a screen and flashed down the right lane, spinning around his defender for a layup at the hoop with 1.5 seconds left. The final last-ditch shot attempt by Ursinus came after the horn.

Mason Wang scored 15 of his game-high 34 points in the final five minutes during a 21-10 spurt to the finish, giving Hood its seventh win in a row, 93-82 at Lebanon Valley. Mason and his twin brother Evan Wang combined for 56 points for the Blazers. Mason Wang went 11-of-18 shooting and 5-for-11 from 3-point range and finished with seven rebounds and four assists. Evan Wang scored 22 points, hitting six of 11 3-pointers and going 8-for-16 overall, to go along with six assists. Hood sits in first place in the MAC Commonwealth at 11-1, a game and a half ahead of Eastern, which defeated Stevenson on Saturday. 

David Sanford was just 3-for-11 for the game, but Capital needed all three of those field goals, including the 3-pointer he made at the buzzer to lift his team past Ohio Northern 53-52. It's the third consecutive win for the Comets and their fourth in five games, leaving Capital fifth in the 10-team Ohio Athletic Conference standings. Joe Thompson led Capital (12-8, 7-6) off the bench with 11 while Sanford added 10. Capital was just 5-for-22 from beyond the arc on the game. Sanford's shot and Joe Thompson's 3-pointer 90 seconds earlier allowed Capital to escape with a win after allowing ONU (8-11, 2-10) to go on a 14-0 run late in the second half to take a 49-46 lead.