CHICOPEE, Mass. — Southern Vermont College took a first half lead that it would hold until the final horn Thursday night as the visiting Mountaineers topped Elms College 87-83 in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's basketball play at Picknelly Arena.
SVC closed out the first half with nine unanswered points to go into the break ahead 49-38, and Southern Vermont then held off a late Blazer push to close out the league victory.
The Mountaineers improve to 14-3 overall on the year, finishing the first half of the Conference schedule at a perfect 8-0. SVC is back on the road on Saturday, starting the second leg of the NECC campaign with a 3 p.m. tip-off at Regis College.
Southern Vermont senior Casey Hall (Albany, N.Y.) led the team with 19 points, 14 of those coming in the second half, while adding eight rebounds and two blocks to his line. Classmate DeShawn Hamlet (Hartford, Conn.) was right behind with 18 points and a team-best 15 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the year, and fellow senior William Bromirski (Cambridge, N.Y.) chipped in with 13 points, three rebounds and two steals.
Mountaineer junior Nate Goldsmith (Capitol Heights, Md.) scored all 15 of his night's points in the first half while adding eight boards and two assists in 16 minutes off the SVC bench. Sophomore Daemond Carter (Forestville, Md.) registered nine points in 15 minutes of reserve time, and freshman Josh Borders (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) tallied six points, two of those coming on a pair of clutch free throws with just 22 seconds left to put Southern Vermont up by six.
The evening was evenly matched in a few of the team statistical categories, SVC shooting 43.6 percent (34-78) from the floor to the Blazers' 46.4 percent (32-69). Both sides grabbed 44 rebounds while Southern Vermont outscored EC in points off turnovers by a 16-10 tally. The Mountaineers owned a 24-12 advantage in second-chance points and scored 46 points in the paint to Elms' 34.
The opening six minutes of play saw five lead changes and three ties after the first basket of the game. A three-pointer put EC up 3-2, but Hamlet was able to answer with a layup on the ensuing possession as the battle began. Bromirski knocked down a pair of treys to put SVC up twice, only to see the Blazers respond to even the score each time. At 12-12, however, Southern Vermont started a 13-0 run with Goldsmith pouring in 10 of those points. He would soon-after hit a three to maintain the 13-point upper hand, and Hamlet scored three straight Mountaineer baskets to keep the advantage in double digits.
SVC's separation would then thin out late in the half as Elms was able to get back to within two on an 11-1 run through a three-minute stretch. A Blazer three-pointer at the 3:26 mark made it a 40-38 Mountaineer lead, but that would be the last EC bucket of the period as Southern Vermont was able to close out the frame with nine unanswered. Four SVC players scored during that run, Hall converting an old-fashioned three-point play with just eight ticks left on the clock to send the Mountaineers into halftime ahead 49-38.
Southern Vermont extended its lead back to 13 early into the second before back-to-back Elms baskets from outside the arc cut it down to a seven-point EC deficit. Another Blazer three would help the hosts get it to a two-possession game, and the teams traded scores over the next three minutes until Elms continued to chip away at the Mountaineer lead with its fourth trey of the period.
Hall was strong in the opening seven minutes of the half for SVC, dropping in 12 of the visitors' first 16 points in the stanza to stay up by a 65-58 margin. Elms would register the next six points, however, to get within one as the Mountaineer shooting went quiet. Two Bromirski buckets from downtown pushed it back to a seven-point SVC lead at 73-66 with 9:18 to go, and a Hamlet layup was then followed by a Carter three to make it a 10-point game.
Long-distance scoring continued down the stretch as another Blazer triple helped Elms cut it down to five at 81-76, that score being part of a 9-2 run which sent the contest into the final 2:30 of action with SVC on top 83-80. Missed shots on both ends of the court preceded Hall tipping in his own attempt, and 1-of-2 EC free throws set the score at 85-81 with 1:17 on the clock. Borders drew a foul after an errant Blazer three, the rookie then knocking down both of his free throws with just 22 seconds left for an 87-81 Mountaineer edge. EC ran the court and got a put-back layup to go, but time would run out on Elms for Southern Vermont to secure its sixth straight win.