CHESTER, Pa. - Junior Tanner Ruths (Stephens City, Va. / Sherando) finished with just eight points, but his back-to-back 3-pointers during the final four minutes of play gave Hood College the lead for good in a 57-55 victory at Widener in Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth play.
Jared Ruiz (Frederick, Md. / Oakdale) scored a game-high 16 points for the Blazers. Davon Hill(Clinton, Md. / Potomac School) had 14 points off the bench. Daniel Wegener (Falling Waters, W.Va. / Broadfording Christian (Md.)) led the team with eight rebounds. Ruths added three steals.
A 3-point play by Ruiz with exactly seven minutes left brought Hood within two points at 48-46. Neither team scored again until Ruths knocked down a 3 with 3:43 to play for a 49-48 Hood lead. On the Blazers' next possession, it was the junior guard connecting from deep again for a 52-48 edge.
Kendall Green pulled the Pride within 52-50 with 2:15 left. With under a minute to play, Malik Harris (Columbia, Md. / Archbishop Spalding) stole the ball and was fouled. He sank the front end of the one-and-one to extend the lead to three points. Ruiz stole the ball with 31 seconds left and, with Widener forced to foul, Harris went to the line again. This time he converted both to stretch the lead to 55-50.
Two Green free throws chipped Hood's lead back to 55-52, but Hill converted a pair of his own for a five-point edge with 10 seconds on the clock. The Pride answered with a 3 by Laron Byrd that made it 57-55 with 3.9 seconds left. Hood was called for a five-second violation, but Widener came up empty on the resulting possession to seal the win.
Hood played catch-up for most of the afternoon. The Pride scored the game's first eight points and led 23-16 with 5:56 left in the half. The Blazers went on a 9-2 run to tie the score at 25-25 on Hill's jumper with 2:21 to go, but Green hit a pair of 3-pointers down the stretch to give Widener a 31-25 halftime lead.
The Pride went ahead 38-30 in the second half before Hood went on a 10-0 run. Hill started the spurt and, after six straight points by Ruiz, Harris scored to give the Blazers their first lead of the day, 40-38, with 13:32 remaining. David Nicholson converted a 3-point field goal to reclaim the lead for the Pride and the Blazers did not pull ahead again until Ruths critical 3s down the stretch.
Green had 14 points to lead Widener and added eight rebounds and five assists. Sardayah Sambo scored 10 points to go with nine rebounds and four blocked shots. Nicholson scored all 12 of his points on 3-pointers.
Hood out-rebounded Widener 41-31 and held the Pride to just two second chance points.
The Blazers went 10-of-13 at the free-throw line (77 percent). Widener attempted just five free throws in the contest, making two (40 percent).
The victory gave Hood (13-12) its seventh winning regular season record in a row and its 11th in the program's 13 seasons.