Box Score THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Taylor Epley scored 34 points Sunday night to lead the Williams College men's basketball team to a 71-53 victory over host Cal Lutheran in the championship game of the 2012 Thrivent Financial Tournament.
Following the conclusion of the weekend, the 2012 Thrivent Financial All-Tournament team was announced and featured Williams junior Taylor Epley as the MVP from Williams with James Klemm (Williams), Jayvaughn Nettles (CLU), Dan Wade (CLU), Tyler Wedemeier (Luther) and John Androus also being selected.
Williams improved to 10-1 with the victory. The Ephs are off until Friday, when they travel to Medford to take on conference foe Tufts at 6 p.m.
"I don't think the trip could have gone any better," Ephs' head coach Mike Maker said. "We came out here hoping to improve as a team and each game I felt we did that, plus we managed to develop even more team chemistry through the cultural events we attended around Los Angeles."
The final game of the tournament was controlled by the Ephs who opened a 32-23 halftime lead en route to the win. Epley netted 18 in the first period on 6-for-8 shooting, which included a trio of three-pointers. He finished 10-for-14 from the field, tallying six total three-pointers and was a perfect 8-for-8 at the free-throw line on a night when Williams shot a combined 94.4 percent from the charity stripe.
Cal Lutheran (5-7) pulled within three at 43-40, but Williams quickly used an 11-2 run to take a 54-42 lead.
Senior Sean Hoffman came off the bench to score eight of his 10 points -- and eight of the Ephs 11 points, during the game-clinching run. He began the run with a short jumper in the paint. After Epley was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three freebies to give Williams an eight-point lead, Hoffman converted two free throws of his own for a 50-40 lead with 11:13 left in the contest.
He followed that with a steal and a thunderous dunk that led the Ephs up by 12, then finished off the run with two more successful charity stripe attempts that left Williams up 54-42 with 8;50 to go.
"I can't say enough about our bench tonight," Maker said. "They really picked us up, and I think we were running out of gas. I was just so proud of them -- and Taylor Epley was an absolute stud this weekend. He really raised his level of play."
Though Nettles cut the Kingsmen deficit to nine with a three-pointer at the 8:10 mark, Williams reciprocated on the ensuing possession to regain a double figure advantage they would not relinquish for the remainder of regulation. The Ephs opened as much as a 24 point lead in the second half.
The Ephs' Nate Robertson handed out a game high six assists and also paced the Ephs with six rebounds. Matt McCreary came down with five. The duo along with teammate John Weinheimer recorded two steals apiece.
The Kingsmen looked to both Nettles and Wade for 12 points and Corey Quintana added 11 off the bench. Nettles came up with a game high four steals, adding three assists to share the team lead with Quintana and Steven Davis. Cal Lutheran shot 35.6 percent from the floor but was just 28 percent from three-point range and the free-throw shooting woes continued, converting just 4-for-10.
Quintana led all players with nine rebounds and tied Williams' Daniel Wohl with a pair of blocks. Quintana and teammate Jeremy Sulker-Hall each had three offensive boards for the Kingsmen in the contest. Sulker-Hall tallied a total of seven.
