NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team made its longest New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) road trip of the year Thursday night— going to Mitchell College and holding on for a 96-86 win at the Yarnall Athletic Center.
The hosting Mariners took a 42-37 lead into the halftime break, but SVC erased its deficit in the second period before going in front by a large margin and closing out the league victory.
Southern Vermont improves to 8-9 overall and currently sits in second place of the NECC standings— bringing a 6-2 Conference mark into a Saturday league matchup at Lesley University (7:30 p.m.). The Mountaineers have now won their last seven meetings with MC.
Three SVC players scored at least 20 points, being led by senior Nate Goldsmith (Capitol Heights, Md.) who tallied a career and game-high 27; he also had nine rebounds and seven assists in the win. Fellow senior Rayshawn Taylor (Silver Spring, Md.) had 22 points and eight boards as sophomore Josh Borders (Miami, Fla.) added another 22 points, tying his career-best, while also notching five steals, three assists and two rebounds. Junior Mike Pierre (Melrose, N.Y.) scored 19 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out five helpers for the Mountaineers.
SVC shot 58.3 percent (35-60) from the floor while the Mariners went 37-for-85 (43.5 percent) from field goal range. MC pulled down a 41-39 edge on the glass and won the turnover battle by a 23-16 margin, but the Mountaineers were able to use their transition game to outscore Mitchell 26-15 in fast-break points.
Borders knocked down a three off a feed from Pierre to put his team up 5-3 in the early going, and two free throws by Goldsmith then sparked a 7-0 SVC run which made it a 16-7 Mountaineer advantage. Mitchell would seize the momentum through the midway point of the half, going on an 18-2 surge to take the upper hand and go in front by eight with 7:44 to go in the period.
Southern Vermont cut it back to a two-point deficit with the help from triples by Goldsmith and Borders, and Pierre then got back-to-back layups to go for the Mariners to hold a slim 34-32 edge. Borders dropped another one from the outside with 1:28 left on the clock, only to see the hosts finish off the frame with a pair of jumpers to go into the halftime break ahead 42-37.
The Mitchell lead was quickly erased once the action got back underway as SVC scored eight unanswered points to open up the second half. MC went back up with a trey, but Taylor responded with one of his own on the next trip down the floor as the teams went back-and-forth. Goldsmith completed his second and-one play in a span of 1:42, and a downtown bucket from Pierre then gave the visitors a 55-50 upper hand. Borders continued to connect to help keep it a two-possession game going into the latter end of the stanza.
The Mariners would cut it to three a few times under the 10-minute mark, but SVC came up with the answer each time to stay on top. A Taylor layup with 7:52 left to go started an 11-0 Mountaineer run during which the Southern Vermont senior totaled six points for the comfortable cushion. SVC would go up by as many as 19 late in the contest— a Goldsmith three being the first of seven unanswered points which created that difference.
Mitchell tried to get back into it late in the action with nine straight, and another six consecutive for the Mariners cut it to just a 92-86 game with 51 ticks to go. The rest of the scoring would come from the charity stripe at the other end of the court, however, as Southern Vermont converted on 4-of-6 of its free throws to stay up by enough and finish off its sixth-straight win.
– #LetsGoSVC –