WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams College Ephs (22-4) fell to the Colby College Mules (20-6) by a score of 66-51 in Chandler Gym on Saturday afternoon. After a close few opening minutes, the Mules took complete control of the half to go up by as many as 27 points. The Ephs, known for their comebacks, cut it to 21 at the half to make a victory manageable. Although they trimmed the Mules' lead as low as 13 with plenty of time remaining, several missed opportunities to cut further into the deficit allowed the Mules to reignite their confidence and comfortably advance to tomorrow's championship game.
"It was really our pace on the offensive end," Eph head coach
Kevin App said of what went wrong today. "We knew what they were going to do, and we didn't really execute what we wanted to do against it. Then, because we got down a little bit, we started trying to do too much defensively and only worried about our guy. So, I thought we were kind of playing individualized on offense and defense. When you do that on defense, you get a little easier to score on and when you do it on offense, you don't have the timing and spacing that you're looking for."
The Mules qualified for championship weekend following a road win over Wesleyan. After losing to the Cardinals by 20 at the start of January, they studied the tape to triumph in overtime. Today, they improved their play from a 9-point loss to the Ephs six weeks ago.
Will King was the star for Colby, making 7-13 tries to finish with 17 points. "I thought Colby played great," App praised. "Their senior, Will King, is obviously really, really good and gets things going for them. When he's also making shots, they're really dynamic."
A feed from
Declan Porter to
Nate Karren jumpstarted the day for the junior big man. On the next possession, Karren posted up his defender for a hook shot, showcasing his reach. A trio of early three-pointers from the Mules compounded with three Eph turnovers, however, put the challengers up seven. King's tenth point of the game for the Mules extended their lead to 15-6 with 13:48 to go in the first half.
Porter found the hoop from close to halt a 13-0 Colby run, but two turnovers in a row from Williams both resulted in points for the Mules as they went up 21-8 with 10:44 left in the half.
Spencer Spivy picked up his second foul of the contest as the Mules moved their advantage to 25-8 with 9:09 to go in the half.
When the Mules converted a 4-point play to go up 29-8 with 7:14 remaining in the half, the Ephs were shooting 4-17 with 5 turnovers. The Mules, meanwhile, were 10-19 — including 4-10 from deep.
Spivy broke a 14-0 Mules' streak, but the Ephs were forced to call timeout trailing 33-10 with 5:06. The Ephs' deficit would climb as high as 27 as they failed to string together positive plays on either end of the floor.
Four free throws and a buzzer-beating coast-to-coast layup from
Evan Glatzer to close the half garnered some momentum for the Ephs, bringing the score to 39-18 when the teams headed into the locker rooms for the break. While the offensive lapse in the half was unfortunate, one thing was clear: Williams would need to significantly improve their defense if they wanted to have a chance — the defense that was responsible for bringing them back out of so many holes throughout the season.
The first Eph basket of the second half came from
Nate Karren. With Colby aiming to stop him on the following play, Karren drilled a trey to bring the gap to 18. After a tenacious Porter finished a layup in a series that featured three Eph offensive rebounds, Karren hit another trey to cut the lead to 15 and fire up the Chandler crowd.
It looked like the Ephs may be finding their groove, but the Mules weren't going to let that happen without a fight. A 10-2 run put Colby back up by 23, and placed pressure on the Ephs to act quickly with 13:36 to go.
Hudson Hansen and
Brandon Roughley each scored inside for the Ephs, but they were unable to convert off of a subsequent defensive stop, as the Mules went up 23 again.
Spivy stepped up with a much-needed trey for the Ephs, but Williams missed a couple looks following defensive stops. An and-one from
Alex Lee made the difference 17, and Spivy went back to work inside to cut it to 15 with 9:07 to go in the contest.
Two possessions in a row, the Ephs missed chances to score off of stops. Spivy was not interested in a third straight — he took it to the rack for a manageable 13-point gap.
The defense of the Ephs continued to thrive in the second half, but the offense was another story. After Spivy's bucket, the Ephs offensive sequence went turnover, miss, turnover. Eventually, the Mules pushed the lead back to 15 with 5:53 left.
Williams would not come any closer. Now, they will await their future from the NCAA selection committee.
"I mean, we have nothing to do but wait until Monday and hope we get into the NCAA tournament — see what the draw is and go from there. You compete this weekend and whether you win or lose, you have to move on. We're disappointed we don't get to play two games and disappointed the door got closed to win the championship, but hopefully the season isn't not over, and we'll have a fun day on Monday."
