BENNINGTON, Vt. – The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team grabbed its third-straight ticket to the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) title game and will have a chance to defend its crown on Saturday as the top-seeded Mountaineers pulled away from No. 4 Wheelock College to register an 82-71 semifinal victory at the Mountaineer Athletic Center Thursday night.
SVC will host No. 2 Becker College for the trophy in a 3 p.m. rematch of the 2016 championship game. That will also mark the third-straight year that the finals will be held at the MAC. Becker edged No. 3 Lesley University 64-62 in Thursday's other semifinal.
The opening 20 minutes of action saw the lead change hands six times while the score was tied on another six occasions. Wheelock got a layup to go with 17 seconds left in the first half to bring a slight 35-34 upper hand into the break.
The two sides traded the advantage another six times in the second period before Southern Vermont went in front 52-50 with 10:14 to go for a lead the hosts would not relinquish; the Mountaineers slowly pushed the difference into double digits through the remainder of the game while going 11-for-13 from the free throw line in the second half to stay ahead for their 15th-straight win.
SVC improves to 17-9 on the year while the Wildcats close out the 2016-17 campaign with a 12-15 overall record.
Mountaineer junior Mike Pierre (Melrose, N.Y.) had a huge game as he dropped in a season-best 27 points to lead all players in the column; he also had six boards, six steals and three assists on the night. Senior Rayshawn Taylor (Silver Spring, Md.) followed with 22 points, eight rebounds and a pair of helpers while classmate Nate Goldsmith (Capitol Heights, Md.) notched his seventh double-double of the year with 12 points and game-high 12 rebounds.
Wheelock senior Derek Fournier (Johnston, R.I.) scored a team-leading 24 points in addition to grabbing five rebounds—all on the defensive end—as classmate Anthony Williams (White Plains, N.Y.) closed out his great collegiate tenure with 22 points and seven rebounds; Williams ends his time as a Wildcat with 1,899 career points. WC senior Matthew Eason (East Hartford, Conn.) tallied 11 points in the effort while classmate Nicholas Fenton (East Hartford, Conn.) was back to his usual facilitating ways with a game-high 12 assists.
The Wildcats shot 45 percent (27-60) from the floor while SVC followed at 41 percent (32-78). Southern Vermont pulled down 46 rebounds to WC's 35 and outscored the visitors 26-12 in points off turnovers. The Mountaineers' 15-2 advantage in offensive boards led to them scoring 20 second-chance points as Wheelock was blanked in the category. While WC had a 10-5 upper hand in made three-pointers, the SVC post presence outplayed that of the Wildcats as Southern Vermont had 38 points in the paint to Wheelock's 20.
WC connected on a couple of early triples go in front by five a pair of times after the tip, but a Goldsmith three got the Mountaineers going as it sparked a 12-2 SVC run that included a pair of dunks by the hosts; Pierre had one of those slams and added a trey to tally seven points during the spurt.
Fournier dropped a pair of downtown buckets through the midway point of the half to help his team keep pace. Williams then hit a jumper for the first two of seven personal, unanswered points that put the Wildcats back in front at 27-24. Neither side could maintain momentum down the stretch as a trey by SVC senior Ervin Cook (Germantown, Md.) excited the Mountaineer faithful—only for the crowd to be silenced on the ensuing possession by a Fournier layup. That would be the final score of the half as Wheelock carried its 35-34 upper hand into the locker room.
The lead trend continued as it went back-and-forth a pair of times in just the first 36 seconds of the second period. Pierre put it back in the hands of the Mountaineers by completing an old-fashioned three-point play, but baskets from beyond the perimeter by Eason and senior Devin Brown (Chicago, Ill.) sent it back over to the visitors as they went in front 44-43.
A Taylor three changed the lead for the third time over the next four minutes before a WC layup tied it at 50-50. That would be the last tie of the ballgame as the Mountaineers went on top for good with a Goldsmith jumper being followed by another off of Taylor's hand. Taylor and Pierre accounted for a 10-0 SVC run—scoring six and four points, respectively—as Southern Vermont went up by 12 with 6:21 to go.
Wheelock utilized the long ball to get back in it with Fournier hitting a pair from the outside as Eason chipped in with another to make it just a 66-62 tally. SVC gained some separation with six-straight points including a pair of fast-break layups by Pierre, and the Mountaineers were able to stay calm from the free throw line to seal the deal.
Southern Vermont went a perfect 8-for-8 from at the charity stripe in the final 2:22 of the contest—those freebies accounting for eight of the Mountaineers' final 10 points of the night. A layup by senior Davante Jordan (Great Mills, Md.) with 30 ticks on the clock put SVC on top by 15 to make a pair of late Wheelock layups insignificant as the hosts won their third-straight NECC semifinal matchup.
– #LetsGoSVC –