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By Matthew Piltch '12
AMHERST, MA - Led by the stellar efforts of co-captains
Joe Geoghegan and Blake Schultz, second-ranked Williams men's
basketball dropped archrival Amherst 81-60 on the road after
leading by only two at half time. The victory gives the Ephs, who
are 22-1 on the season and 8-0 in the NESCAC, the NESCAC regular
season title and the rights to host the NESCAC tournament. It also
gives the team its first back-to-back outright Little Three titles
since the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
Schultz
finished the game with 19 points, while Geoghegan finished with 17
points and 10 rebounds on 6-7 shooting from the field and 5-5
shooting on free throws. The 10 rebounds gives Geoghegan 687 career
rebounds; he moved from sixth to fifth on the Eph all-time rebounds
list following the effort. James Wang joined Schultz and Geoghegan
in double figures with 18 points and also p
icked up 4 assists and 2 steals. As a team, the Ephs shot 61.2%
from the field in the game while holding the Jeffs to a 45%
shooting effort. David Waller was the only Jeff in double figures
with 12 points in the game.
The tension
between the fans in the gym was palpable as the game began, and it
looked like the Ephs would be in for a battle. Even without
starting point guard Connor Meehan, who was out due to a
thigh-contusion, Amherst jumped out to a quick lead. The Jeffs
scored the first 5 points of the game before the Ephs got on the
board, and a Waller three-pointer made the score 10-3 in favor of
the Jeffs just 3:36 into the game.
Amherst's offensive onslaught
continued for several minutes, as the Jeffs went 8-11 from the
field in the first 8:37 of the half and led 20-13 with 11:23 to
play. Only the offense of Wang and Geoghegan kept Williams in the
game, as the pair combined to score 11 of the Ephs' first 13
points.
At that
point, Williams began to cut into Amherst's lead. The
Jeffs would not see a 7-point advantage again in the game; spurred
by momentum-changing dunk from center Troy Whittington with 10:58
to play, the Eph offense exploded, and the team soon cut the Jeff
lead to 2, 24-22, following a fast-break layup by Wang with 7:57
remaining in the half.
The Ephs
then traded baskets with Jeffs for several minutes before finally
tying the game 36-36 with 1:42 remaining on a jumper from Schultz -
his only bucket of the first half. After both teams made one of two
free throws, Williams came down the court with the last possession
and the score tied 37-37. Whittington was put on the line for a
one-and-one with less than one second remaining and the opportunity
to put the Ephs up headed into half time; he appeared to have
squandered the opportunity as the free throw caromed off the rim,
but Williams senior Will Hardy came up big for the Ephs, tipping
the miss home as time expired to give the Ephs a 39-37 lead headed
into half time.
As the
score line suggested, the first 20 minutes session was an offensive
affair. Williams shot 63 percent from the field in the half while
Amherst shot 57 percent. Wang and Geoghegan led the way for
Williams in the half, with 10 and 11 points, respectively. All but
one of the pair's points came on layups. Meanwhile, Amherst
did an excellent job shutting down Schultz for the half, holding
the conference's leading scorer to 1-4 shooting. Schultz was
0-3 from three in the first; he had made 12-12 three pointers in
the previous three games. Waller led the Amherst offense in the
half with 10 points, and every Jeff who stepped on the floor in the
first 20 minutes scored.
The second
half was a very different story. While the Ephs continued to light
it up on the offensive end, they also made some adjustments on the
defensive side of the ball.
“We
moved the [defensive] point of attack back to compensate for their
quickness and applied more pressure to their point guards,”
said Mike Maker, head coach of the Ephs. “We also focused on
defensive discipline and attention to detail.”
The impact
of the changes was immediately felt, as Williams went on a 13-3 run
in the half's first four minutes behind 8 points from Schultz
to make the score 52-40. Amherst was then able to stem the tide,
and the Eph lead bounced between 9 and 12 until Alex Rubin hit a
three with 10:41 in the half to give the Ephs a 59-44 lead.
Amherst
called a time out in response, but it was to no avail. The Eph
charge continued; a three from Schultz, who scored 17 points in the
second 20 minutes, put the Ephs' up 66-45 with 7:41 remaining
in the half. The Ephs slowly stretched their
lead over the next several minutes and were up by as many as 29
after a Whittington ten-footer made the score 78-49 with 3:29
remaining in the game. The Jeffs cut into the lead slightly over
the last few minutes to make the final mark 81-60 in favor of the
Ephs.
The Ephs
held the Jeffs to only 31 percent shooting in the second half as a
result of their change in defensive strategy. Whittington ended the
game with 9 points on 4-4 shooting, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2
steals, while Rubin added 9 points as well.
“It's been awesome working
toward winning the NESCAC and the Little Three with this group of
guys this year,” said Schultz, one of the front-runners for
NESCAC player of the year. “It's a great accomplishment
for us.”
“I am
proud of our senior class,” added Maker. “As I have
said many times, it is not the success of the group, but the way
the are doing it. They represent everything great about college
basketball and about Williams.”
Geoghegan
echoed Maker. “There's seven of us [in the senior
class], and I feel like … the leadership among the group has
become really great,” he said. “I hope we can keep it
going.”
The season
is clearly not over yet for the Ephs. The team travels to Trinity
tomorrow to take on the Bantams at 4 p.m.; a win would give the
Ephs a chance at the No. 1 national ranking after first-ranked
Guilford lost earlier in the week. The team will then host a quarterfinal game
of the NESCAC tournament the following
weekend.
