Williamstown, Mass. - In a thrilling start to New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play, the visiting Trinity College Bantams outlasted the Williams College Ephs, 71-69, in double overtime this evening at Chandler Gymnasium.  Trinity improves to 11-2 with its ninth consecutive victory, while the Ephs fall to 9-4 with their first loss in three games and their first against the Bantams at home since 1995-96.

Trinity took a commanding lead to start the second half, but Williams clawed their way back, forcing two overtimes in a game that went down to the very last seconds.  Both teams started the game cold, and the game remained sluggish and close for the entirety of the half, as the teams went into the locker room with the score 25-24 in Williams' favor.  Both squads made less than a third of their shots and less than a quarter from long distance in the first half.

Trinity came out strong in the second stanza, launching a 22-5 run that included 12 unanswered points and led, 46-30, after an old-fashioned three-point play by sophomore forward Ed Ogundeko (Brooklyn, N.Y.) with 13:07 remaining in regulation.  Williams cut the lead to 8 at the midpoint of the second half and Dan Wohl capped the Williams comeback with a transition layup with a minute left and one of two free throws with 3.6 seconds left to to tie the game at 5-all and force overtime.

Trinity scored first in the extra frame on a layup by senior tri-captain center George Papadeas (Athens, Greece) and twice more on buckets inside by senior forward Alex Conaway (New Haven, Conn.) and senior tri-captain guard Hart Gliedman (New York, N.Y.), but Wohl scored four of the six Eph points in the five-minute session despite missing all six of his tries from the charity stripe and the teams entered the second overtime knotted up at 65 apiece.

A tough Williams bucket by Chris Galvin opened the second overtime and gave Williams their first lead since the beginning of the second half, but junior guard Jaquann Starks (Hartford, Conn.) answered for Trinity. Wohl and Ogundeko traded buckets, keeping the game tied until the latter sunk a free throw to give the Bantams a one-point advantage at the 2:06 mark. Ogundeko came up with a huge rejection moments later on Wohl, but Wohl blocked Starks on a drive at the other end.  After a Trinity miss, Wohl pulled up for a go-ahead fade-away jumper from just inside the free throw line that bounced a couple of times on the rim before falling away.  Gliedman made a free throw, and time expired after a hard-fought 50 minutes.

Wohl notched a doble-double with game-high 32 points and 14 rebounds, and Jaquann Starks led the Bantams with 21 points t go with five rebounds.  Both teams finished the game having made less than 40% of its shots (Williams: 35.3%, Trinity: 38.7%) and only a quarter of their three-point attempts.  The Ephs also made 15 of their 29 attempts from the foul line.  Ogundeko contributed 11 points, a team-high eight boards, and three blocks, while junior forward Shay Ajayi (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had 11 points and seven rebounds for the visitors.