CANTON, NY – The Williams College Ephs (5-0) willed their way to victory over the St. Lawrence Saints (4-0) on Sunday afternoon. In a homecoming for Declan Porter, dozens of fans flocked to the arena to see the Canton native turned Eph standout. While the Ephs sunk just 5-20 (25%) from three-point range — much in part to the Saints' zone defense — they relied on their consistent defense to sneak out of New York with a win. Additionally, center Nate Karren stepped up when the Ephs needed him most, as he registered a season high 23 points on 11-15 shooting.
Speaking on the scheduling of a game in Canton, Eph head coach Kevin App said, "We try to be around families as best we can; the people who make the program what it is. This was a doubly important game — the Porter family was able to host us, and Declan's family and friends got to see him play. Also, our loved Williamstown supporters, the Storey family, were represented at the game — including through St. Lawrence player and former Williamstown resident Carter Storey."
The Saints had an opportunity on their final possession to tie the game, but a defensive stop from the Ephs sealed the win by three.
"It's a hard zone to simulate in practice and they did a great job with it. It was a new challenge for us that we had to learn on the fly. We had good and bad stretches, but we keep showing our balance — we can score inside or outside, different guys can step up, and today our defensive rebounding helped us."
Porter scored the first Williams basket as he found a lane to drive, and then assisted Cole Prowitt-Smith for a trey on the subsequent possession. Following that basket 90 seconds into the contest, however, the Ephs would enter a scoring drought of 7:06.
The Williams defense allowed the score to stay level during the stretch, and Alex Lee revitalized the Ephs offense with a three-pointer banked off the glass from the top of the arc. Brandon Roughley, playing his first game of the season in his return from injury, laid in a bucket to make the score 10-11.
Williams took a timeout trailing 13-10 with 9:40 to play in the first half. The slow offensive start was accentuated by a combined 11 turnovers during the first 10 minutes of play. Out of the timeout, the Ephs took a new approach on offense: they focused on working the ball inside to Nate Karren, who scored four of the next five makes for the Ephs.
The Ephs held a 25-24 lead at the break, as neither team could muster a lead greater than one possession throughout the half. The intensity from both sides resulted in four ties and 11 lead changes. The Ephs shot 11-24 (46%), while the Saints went 10-29 (35%). Karren had 10 points for the Williams, sharing the game high in the half with Trent Adamson of St. Lawrence.
Karren collected the first four points of the second half for Williams, before Porter swished a mid-range jumper from the corner to put Williams ahead 31-24 and force a Saints timeout with 17:58 remaining.
Just as the Ephs seemed to be getting to the rim with their usual ease, the Saints capitalized on consecutive steals in the half court to cut the deficit to just three points. A dunk from Adamson in transition knotted the teams at 36 with 12:15 left.
Porter nailed his first three-pointer of the game with 9:51 to play, putting Williams up 41-37. The Saints hit a long ball to make the differential just one, but Karren responded with the next five Williams points for a 48-44 Eph advantage with 5:30 to go.
Although they could never put the game fully out of reach, a number of impressive defensive stops in the final did the job.
Over the course of the contest, the Ephs went 5-7 from the free throw line, while the Saints made 4-11 tries — potentially an instrumental difference maker in a game decided by just three points.
"It's still that stretch of early season where you're just learning," App said. "You hope to learn during wins, and we'll take a ton away from today in how to attack different zones and late game situations — we try to schedule different styles and coaching philosophy during the non-conference part of the season."
The Ephs are set to face another test in RPI at home in Chandler Gym on Tuesday, November 29 at 7 p.m.
"Every road win is a big one. We'll get back home and go from there."
