BENNINGTON, Vt. — The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team knocked down nine three-pointers while shooting a season-best 56.4 percent from the field Saturday afternoon for a 106-87 win over Wheelock College in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) play at the Mountaineer Athletic Center.
The season sweep of Wheelock gives SVC a 20-3 overall record and perfect 14-0 mark in NECC action. WC falls to 5-16 on the season and 2-10 in league play.
Fittingly, Mountaineer captain Dolapo Olugbile (Laurel, Maryland) led his team with 21 points on his Senior Day, adding six rebounds and two blocks in his final regular season home game at the MAC. Junior William Bromirski (Cambridge, New York) provided a spark from downtown, going 5-9 from three-point range to finish with 18 points while classmate Jeff James (Bowie, Maryland) scored 15 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out five assists.
Fellow junior DeShawn Hamlet (Hartford, Connecticut) notched his seventh double-double of the season, scoring 16 points to go with a game-high 15 rebounds off the bench; he added three steals and a team-best six assists in the win while sophomore Nate Goldsmith (Seat Pleasant, Maryland) added 11 points, four rebounds and three assists in reserve time.
Six Wildcats made their way to double digits in the points column including all five starters. Sophomore Anthony Williams (White Plains, New York) registered a game-high 27 points to go along with his team-best eight boards and three assists, and freshman Lawrence Christmas (Garner, North Carolina) followed with 14 points off the WC bench. Sophomore Matt Eason (East Hartford, Connecticut) tallied 13 points while junior Joe Reedy (Orlando, Florida) and sophomores Nicholas Fenton (East Hartford, Connecticut) and Derek Fournier (Johnston, Rhode Island) all notched 11 points in the effort.
Southern Vermont went 44-78 from the floor while connecting on 9-18 attempts from three-point distance. Wheelock also fared well from the floor, going 34-72 for a 47.2 field goal percentage; the visitors had great success from the outside, finishing with an 11-27 clip on three-pointers (40.7 percent).
Olugbile was fired up to be playing in front of friends and family, scoring six point to help give SVC an early 11-0 lead. Goldsmith knocked down a pair of treys to maintain Southern Vermont's separation as the teams traded baskets; Williams converted a nice floater in the lane to make it 16-7, but Goldsmith responded with his second bucket from deep after grabbing a bullet of a pass from sophomore Davante Jordan (Great Mills, Maryland).
Following an Olugbile tip-in at the 9:28 mark, Wheelock started to chip away at its deficit by going on a 9-4 run that included an Eason three-pointer on the left side off a nice feed from Williams. Just over a minute later, Eason drilled another deep shot from the left side, and Fournier banged home a three of his own to make it a 29-28 Southern Vermont edge.
Long balls continued to highlight the action as Bromirski hit his first to make it 34-28, and he kept the hot hand going with another three-pointer to put his team on top 37-30 with 4:15 to go in the first. But that's when the perimeter game came up big for the Wildcats as they knocked down three baskets from beyond the arc in the final 3:10 of the period, two by Fenton, to send the game to halftime with the score knotted at 41-41.
After the break, turnovers from each team preceded Bromirski's third deep basket of the day, but Williams answered with a pair of scores to put his team on top (45-44) for the first time of the day. It would not last long, however, as the Mountaineers came back with 12 straight points that included a pair of and-one plays and Olugbile's second slam of the game. That provided Southern Vermont with enough of a cushion and strong momentum for the hosts to keep their distance, never leading by less than eight the rest of the way.
SVC junior Casey Hall (Albany, New York) knocked down a pair of jumpers from the top of the key on successive Mountaineer possessions, and Bromirski nailed two more three-pointers to open up the lead to 82-64. Southern Vermont put the game away for good when Olugbile ran the floor following a Wheelock miss, took the outlet pass and hammered down a windmill dunk to electrify the Mountaineer faithful. A Hamlet slam about 1:30 later was the final straw as SVC celebrated its 13th straight win.
Olugbile and fellow senior Corey Christensen (Sharon, Connecticut) were both recognized and honored for their hard work during their SVC careers prior to the start of Saturday's contest.
SVC looks ahead to its final two regular season games, the first of which is on Thursday at Elms College (7 p.m.). Wheelock is on the road Monday for its next action, visiting Becker College for a 1 p.m. conference tip.