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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA--The Williams men's basketball team (17-7, 4-5)
closed out a much-needed weekend with another win, beating Wesleyan
(8-16, 1-8) by a score of 87-57. The Ephs again dominated the
glass, and built a lead of more than 20 points by halftime.
It was senior day for the Ephs, and not surprisingly the seniors
showed up in a big way right out of the gate. Foremost among
them was Matt Weisbrot, who scored 8 points while grabbing 13
rebounds in the first half alone. Point guard Chris Shalvoy
led the team with 10 points in the first half, including two
three-pointers and a driving lay-up towards the end of the half to
give the Ephs their biggest lead of the half at 46-24.
Williams jumped out to an early lead in large part to a stellar
defensive performance in the first half, holding the Cardinals to
just 23% shooting from the floor. The Ephs handy glasswork
proved to their advantage for the second straight night, as
Williams more than doubled Wesleyan's rebounding total in the first
half. By pressing their size advantage with Joe Geoghegan and
Weisbrot, Williams mounted a 13-2 advantage on second-chance points
in the first half, allowing them to stretch the lead to 22 despite
shooting a respectable yet unimpressive 43% from the field.
If the outcome was still in doubt, Williams would fix that right
out of the locker room in the second half. The Ephs started
the half with a 14-2 run to go up 60-26. Highlighting the run
were two Chris Rose threes; the first of which at the 18:30 mark
garnered a standing ovation, as Rose had struggled from the field
before that.
With 15 minutes left senior guard Brendan Hanifin checked into
the game, marking the first time all four Eph seniors were on the
floor together. After a brief stint with this lineup Coach
Paulsen sent the subs in, and the seniors headed to the bench
amidst a standing ovation.
It was more of the same after that, with Williams stretching the
lead to 38 points at one point during the game. Almost
everyone on the Williams bench got some action in the blowout
victory as Troy Whittington '11, Ethan Timmins-Schiffman '10, and
Mike Moorstein '11 contributed some solid minutes.
There were few bright spots for Wesleyan, as no player reached
double-digits in points on the night. Guard Ezzaak Diggs led
the team with 8 points on an efficient 3 for 4 from the field, and
former Eph Kevin Scura chipped in with 6 points.
For the Ephs, in addition to Weisbrot and Shalvoy, Blake Schultz
'10 turned in a perfect performance: 4 for 4 from the field, and 5
for 5 from the free throw line for a team-leading 14 points.
Schultz also got the Ephs started on the right foot by converting a
three-point play for the Ephs first basket of the night.
Said Eph coach Dave Paulsen, "This weekend was what we
needed...we won a game last night where we really, really
struggled, and then today we finally got back to playing some
basketball - it was nice to send our seniors out on a positive
note...those four guys are really special to us."
When asked how he felt about heading into the NESCAC playoffs
next week and the potential match up the Ephs might encounter,
Paulsen quipped, "I feel a lot better than I did three days ago -
last night even," but added "we know it's more about how we play
and what we do; taking care of what we can take care of.".
Regarding the game itself, Paulsen was pleased that the Ephs
"did a much better job getting our running game going which we
haven't done in a while, and we did a real solid job defensively".
Besides getting the win, the most important part of Saturday's
game might've been senior Chris Rose breaking out of his shooting
slump in the second half. Said Paulsen:
"Chris has meant so much to this team and to this program...he's
struggled and, you know, your heart goes out to him because nobody
cares more. Athletics, you know, it's not all peaches and
cream and it probably hasn't gone the way you diagram it for your
senior year, so it was nice for him to get a couple. Last
night was our Texas-league single, I think the second half today
was his."
With the win Williams earned the #6 seed in the upcoming
NESCAC tournament. The Ephs will head to Middlebury to face
the #3 Panthers. Game time is set for Saturday, 3:00
pm.
