WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Despite trailing in the opening minutes of the second half, Southern Vermont College regained a lead and held on for a 75-68 win over Williams College in non-conference men's basketball action at Chandler Gymnasium Saturday night.
After losing 12 straight games to WC, the Mountaineers have now won their last two meetings with Williams. The victory marks the first for Southern Vermont on the Ephs' home court as last year's triumph was moved to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
SVC starts the season 1-0 while Williams, a team ranked No. 5 by D3Hoops.com's preseason poll, drops to 0-1 to begin the year.
Solid free throw shooting helped the Ephs pull to within four with just over a minute to play, but the Mountaineers came up with a couple of clutch trips to the charity stripe to maintain their advantage and walk off with a win against last year's Division III national runner-up.
SVC utilized a balanced offense with five players reaching double digits in the points column. Senior captain Dolapo Olugbile (Laurel, Maryland) led the team with 13 points to go with five rebounds and a blocked shot. Junior captain Antoine White (Bethesda, Maryland), junior Casey Hall (Albany, New York), and sophomore Davante Jordan (Great Mills, Maryland) all tallied 12 points with Hall pulling down a team-high seven rebounds. Junior William Bromirski (Cambridge, New York) registered 10 points with a pair of three-pointers in his first game as a Mountaineer.
Williams senior Hayden Rooke-Ley (Eugene, Oregon) notched a game-best 20 points, going a perfect 15-15 from the free throw line. Classmate Ryan Kilcullen (Hingham, Massachusetts) just missed a double-double with 13 points and nine boards while sophomore Daniel Aronowitz (Columbus, Ohio) followed with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Early action saw the Mountaineers come out with high energy en route to a 9-3 opening advantage with control of momentum. The next trip down the floor following a Williams turnover, Bromirski lined up and swished a trey for a 12-3 lead. The Ephs and first-year head coach Kevin App attempted to slow down the SVC surge and change things up with a number of early substitutions, a decision that led to six unanswered points from the hosts following a drive by sophomore Mike Greenman (Linwood, New Jersey) through an open lane.
With the score set at 14-9, WC senior Daniel Wohl (La Canada, California) hit a big three-pointer to make it a one-possession game. But SVC responded as sophomore Brandon Casella (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) came off the bench and drained one of his own from downtown. The Mountaineer defense kept up the intensity, forcing turnovers and scrapping for loose balls on the floor. Midway through the first half with SVC up 21-16, Williams used a timeout in order to regroup and quell the visitors' momentum.
Southern Vermont soon-after picked up its sixth foul with eight minutes to go in the period, but that would not stop the Mountaineer defense from playing aggressively. The Mountaineers were able to break up an Eph inbound pass, and Bromirski took advantage by laying it in to put his team up 25-16. Not to be deterred, WC started to connect from downtown including two big three-pointers by Rooke-Ley that helped turn the energy and trim SVC's advantage down to three (29-26). Williams then took its first lead since being up 3-2 when another three put the Ephs ahead 31-29 with 3:41 to go in the stanza.
After White made a layup to tie the game, Kilcullen knocked down another long ball to put WC back on top. Jordan came right back down the floor and hit a trey of his own to once again even things (34-34), but Kilcullen would convert on his next attempt from beyond the arc to put his team back up by three. The two sides traded field goals to go into the break with Williams up 37-34.
The Ephs went 6-13 (46.2 percent) from three-point range in the first, hitting some big shots to erase their deficit and go ahead before halftime. The two teams were almost even from the field with SVC going 15-31 and Williams shooting at a 13-30 clip. Both sides committed nine turnovers in the first.
WC started the second half with a basket, but Bromirski responded with a three-pointer to make it 41-39 in favor of the Ephs. Following a Williams miss, Southern Vermont tied the game when Hall connected a great pass to White who was running backdoor for the lay-in. The Mountaineers then went back on top with a three ball by sophomore Nate Goldsmith (Seat Pleasant, Maryland) from the right side. Their lead wouldn't last long, however, as Aronowitz hit a deep shot of his own to tie the contest at 44-44.
Baskets were traded on both ends of the court until SVC went on an 11-0 run to go up 59-46, the biggest lead for either side the whole night. During that stretch, Jordan made one of the best plays of the evening to swing the momentum fully in the way of the Mountaineers; as Williams was trying to inbound the ball from underneath the Southern Vermont hoop, Jordan tracked the pass towards midcourt and leapt up, making an amazing acrobatic catch to intercept the ball before continuing at the WC basket for the layup and the foul. After an Eph timeout, Jordan converted the free throw for the three-point play to put his team up 56-46.
Olugbile put one off the glass for the eleventh unanswered SVC point, but the Mountaineers then picked up their seventh foul of the half to give Williams the bonus. Trying to get back to within striking distance, WC started taking its shots from deep; Aronowitz was successful on a three-point attempt at the 10:26 mark to make it 59-51, but that would be the last basket from outside the perimeter that the Ephs would sink the rest of the way.
A three-minute scoring drought for Southern Vermont ended with 8:25 to go when Jordan jumped in to steal a Williams pass, taking it coast-to-coast for the layup that put the Mountaineers in front 61-53. Scoring went back-and-forth through the next four minutes with SVC able to keep its distance. Fouls started to make a difference, however, as the Ephs were consistent with their success at the line, closing the score to 67-62 after a pair from Kilcullen with three minutes to go.
Southern Vermont would be challenged to close the game out with free throws when Williams started to foul late in order to slow down the game. Olugbile would hit one-of-two to make it 70-64, and Aronowitz then drove through the lane to get within four. With just over one minute to play, Hall was fouled after a Williams turnover but remained calm and collected at the line, hitting a pair of free throws to put his team up 72-66. WC appeared to have a chance at making it a one-possession game after a backcourt violation gave the Ephs the ball, but they would miss a three-point attempt and were forced to foul.
Olugbile went to the line and knocked down a pair from the charity stripe to set the score at 74-66 with 33.7 seconds left. Williams converted two free throws of its own, but SVC junior Jeff James (Bowie, Maryland) caught a homerun inbound pass with room to run in the WC end of the court; he decided to pull up and run time off the clock before being fouled and going to the line. James only made one, but that's all he needed to put the game out of reach for the Ephs as time expired.
After gaining the bonus with 10:57 to go in the second half, Williams went 15-16 from the free throw line to end the night 17-18 (96 percent) from the stripe. But the Mountaineers were able to hold the Ephs to just 35.3 percent (18-51) from the field for the game while connecting on 29-60 (48.3 percent) field goal attempts of their own. SVC committed only six turnovers in the second half while forcing Williams to make 12 in the period.
Southern Vermont now turns to its Monday home opener when the Mountaineers host Green Mountain College at 8 p.m., and the Ephs next welcome the State University of New York at Oneonta to Chandler Gymnasium on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. home tip-off.