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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA-The Williams men's basketball team (10-4) lost
a wire-to-wire home contest to nemesis Amherst (10-1) Saturday,
65-60. The Ephs led at the half, but missed some key free
throws and rebounds down the stretch.
The first half at Chandler Gymnasium was as close as they come,
as neither team led by more than four points at any point during
the first 20 minutes of play. The Ephs controlled the tip and
struck first with a drop-step lay-up by big man Joe Geoghegan (Cape
Elizabeth, ME). After a charge taken by Eph co-captain Kevin
Snyder (Littleton, CO) on the other end, Geoghegan found guard and
Eph second-leading scorer Blake Schultz (Atherton, CA) for a
backdoor lay-up to put the Ephs up 4-0.
The Jeffs would answer back on a three-point play by freshman
forward David Waller, but even in the early goings the
fourth-ranked Lord Jeffs looked relatively human compared to their
national champion predecessors. One noticeable difference was
the lack of size advantage that the Jeffs had enjoyed in recent
years, as Williams trotted out a starting lineup including 6'8"
Geoghegan, 6'8" Harlan Dodson (Nashville, TN), and 6'3" forwards
Schultz and Snyder.
The Ephs appeared poised to make a run after back to back
Schultz three-pointers put the Ephs up 14-10 and forced an Amherst
timeout with 13:07 left to play in the half. The Jeffs would
answer out of the timeout though, as leading scorer Brian
Baskauskas hit a pull-up jumper on an isolation play.
The two teams traded baskets for the rest of the half until
junior guard Alex Rubin (Chevy Chase, MD) hit a step-back jumper to
put the Ephs up 30-26. As was typical of the entire game
though, Amherst found a way to answer when, after holding for the
last shot, a Baskauskas miss was tipped in by guard Taylor Barrise
to send the Jeffs to the locker room down just two, 30-28.
Schultz came up big for Williams in the first half, scoring 12
points on 5 of 8 shooting. Geoghegan and sophomore Troy
Whittington (Brooklyn, NY) added six apiece on perfect 3 for 3
shooting. Incredibly, Williams only attempted 3 shots from
three-point range in the first half, making 2 out of 3 (both by
Schultz).
The tension would only thicken in the first half, as the two
teams seemed all the more determined not to let the other build any
sort of sizeable lead.
Dodson started things off for the Ephs with a pair of threes to
put the Ephs up 38-33. Just as the crowd was going crazy
though, Baskauskas netted a long ball of his own to make it a two
point game again.
With 13:14 to go in the second half, David Waller hit a pair of
free throws to give Amherst their first lead since 21-20 in the
first half. Moments later Eph junior Ethan Timmins-Schiffman
came up with a big hustle play, tracking down a loose ball then
taking it strong to the rim to tie the score at 40.
On the next play the Lord Jeffs produced probably the most
aesthetically pleasing play of the game when Baskauskas hit Waller
for an alley-oop off a sideline out-of-bounds play, producing a
flurry of oohs and ahhs from the Jeff faithful.
With under two minutes to go in the game, Amherst finally gained
a shred of separation on a Jeff Holmes lay-in, making the score
59-53 in favor of the visitors. Holmes was fouled on the play
but missed the free throw, and Schultz was fouled on the
rebound. At the line for a one-and-one, Schultz would make
both.
After the free throws by Schultz, Maker put in seldom-used but
lightning fast freshman guard James Wang (Sydney, Australia) to
defend Meehan. The move proved to be brilliant as Wang forced
a five-second call by hounding the Amherst point guard. On
the ensuing possession Schultz drove the lane and was fouled again,
making both once again to pull the home Ephs within two,
59-57. With the atmosphere in Chandler Gymnasium rising to a
fever pitch, the Lord Jeffs could not even inbound the ball and
were forced to burn another timeout at the 1:00 minute mark.
Amherst emerged from the timeout only to run down the shot-clock
to 15 seconds and call another timeout. With the clock
showing 39.8 seconds, the Lord Jeffs came out of the second break
with a basket, as Meehan somehow broke free from Wang for a
double-pump lay in on the right side. Meehan was assisted by
Baskauskas, who appeared to travel before making the pass to Meehan
amongst a barrage of boos from the hometown fans. Said Eph
Coach Mike Maker of the play, "I'm not going to talk about the
officiating, and you'll never hear me talk about officiating.
One call doesn't decide the outcome of a game."
On the other side Snyder found Geoghegan for an attempted dunk,
but the big fellow was fouled on the attempt. Geoghegan would
make just one, leaving Williams down three and forced to foul.
With only 11 seconds remaining, senior guard Marcus Bradley
calmly sank both free throws for the Lord Jeffs to make it a
two-possession game, 63-58. Though Schultz was able to hit a
fadeaway jumper on the other end, the play burned precious time.
With the game hanging in the balance, the Ephs fouled Meehan on
a dead ball to keep the clock stagnant at 4.2 seconds. With
Chandler Gym at a near deafening volume, Meehan missed both only to
see the rebound fall out of bounds off the outstretched hands of
Eph Blake Schultz. The unlucky break meant Williams was
forced to foul yet again. Again the Jeffs helped them out by
missing both, but again Williams was unable to come up with the
rebound as the ball was tipped out to Meehan before he was
fouled. Meehan this time made both, and the remaining
milliseconds ticked off the clock as the Jeffs emerged victorious,
65-60.
The inability of the Ephs to get a rebound in the final plays
highlighted their fatal weakness on Saturday: The Lord Jeffs
grabbed an astounding 19 offensive rebounds on the game, allowing
them to overcome a relatively woeful shooting night (39% from the
field, 24% from three-point range, and 63% from the free-throw
line).
Said Maker, ""I thought we came out with great intensity and
great poise offensively. We shot 53% from the field against a
very good team defensively - they've been holding teams to under
40% shooting. The difference in the game was the offensive
rebounding - they got 19 of them. I'm disappointed in that
but I'm proud of our kids, how they responded and got great
opportunities on the offensive end...but when the ball went to the
rim, the 50-50 balls, they won that battle, I'm disappointed in
that but you know it was a great basketball environment and we just
have to learn from this."
The Ephs got a great game from Schultz, who went off for 22
points on 7 of 11 from the field and 6 of 6 from the line, all of
which coming at an important time for Williams late in the
game. Schultz also led Williams in rebounds with seven.
Geoghegan added 13 points but had only three rebounds. Eph
leading scorer Snyder had a tough shooting night with only 9 points
on 2 of 10 shooting, although that can be attributed in large part
to an Amherst defensive effort that seemed intent on keeping Snyder
in check.
For Amherst, the scoring was balanced as four players scored in
double digits. Baskauskas led the way with 17, the freshman
Waller added 12, and Conor Meehan scored 10 including the clinching
lay-up.
Despite missing a few key free throws late in the game and
shooting just 65% from the line, Coach Maker dismissed the idea
that free throws contributed in any large way to the loss.
"We're a good shooting team," said Maker, "it was not the shooting
that decided the game. We won the skill battle.
Intelligence was a draw. As far as the 50-50 balls, we
collectively did not do a good enough job on the glass. I'm
really proud of our kids, but I'm disappointed with our rebounding
efforts and obviously I'm disappointed we lost."
Williams will return to action on January 13 in a home contest
vs. Hamilton. Game time is set for 7:30 pm.
