HARTFORD, CT – After a back-and-forth contest for the first 25 minutes, the Williams College Ephs (18-3, 5-3 NESCAC) began the second half 8-10 from downtown to open up a commanding lead to beat a gritty Trinity Bantams (15-6, 3-4 NESCAC) team 94-79. In a career-defining night for
Spencer Spivy, the senior dropped 28 points on 5-6 shooting from deep and 7-7 free throw shooting.
Cole Prowitt-Smith also scored 22 points in the victory.
"For anyone that came to that game not knowing what to expect, they got to see a high-level college basketball game," Eph head coach
Kevin App remarked after the road win. "As coaches, you hope your team comes out playing loose and playing to win. I thought both we and Trinity did that. We talked about not overreacting to specific moments and continuing to play with confidence. I'm super proud that we played confident and played together — it was probably our best game of the year."
Trinity shot 7-13 from three-point land in the first half to put up 45 points against an elite Williams defense. Although the Ephs tallied 43 on 56% shooting, the Bantams consistently hit contested shots as they forced Williams to stay patient.
"Our team matured where we didn't overreact to them making contested shots," App praised. "Trinity showed they have talented players, but our guys stuck to it."
Spencer Spivy began the scoring on the evening with a triple from the corner. The Ephs subsequently forced a turnover before
Cole Prowitt-Smith successfully attacked the glass on offense for a 5-0 lead. An untouched drive from Spivy made it seven straight points from the Ephs, as the Bantams called timeout. The regroup seemed to work for Trinity, as they tied the game at seven with 15:06 left in the first half.
From there, the Ephs would proceed to make three consecutive long balls.
Declan Porter sunk his first three-pointer of the game, before
Nate Karren got one to fall on the next possession. Beautiful offensive facilitation by
Evan Glatzer then led to a clean look from Spivy, who knocked it down without hesitation. Still, the Bantams had similar production on offense to take a 19-18 lead.
Eight minutes into the game,
Brandon Roughley checked in for the Ephs in his return from injury. His unit came in as a group of five, with the other four Ephs being
Alex Lee,
Noah Dinkins,
Ryan Moon, and
Hudson Hansen. The substitution was reminiscent of the last couple seasons, when the Ephs would regularly replace the starters with an entirely fresh unit.
Although it took Roughley a few possessions to find his groove, he played in his aggressive but patient style of basketball to tally three consecutive baskets for Williams.
"Brandon did what he does," App said. "Giving us those minutes were huge to get us some easy baskets, which got our drive-and-kick game going."
Two three-pointers in a row for
Declan Porter got the Ephs back in a rhythm, and Spivy would body his way to the hoop to give the Ephs a 36-35 advantage with 3:59 to go in the half. The Bantams scored off of a Williams turnover, however, to go up 40-36. App then took a timeout as the Ephs looked to close out the half strong.
Spivy hit a trey as the shot clock expired to cut the deficit to just a single point, but the Bantams made an unlikely off-balance three-pointer to go back up by four.
Each time the Ephs made a basket, the Bantams appeared to have a response. Porter's three-pointers, Karren's inside shots — no amount of positive Ephs offense seemed to translate to stops the defensive end. A large part of their success was 7-13 shooting from deep in the first half — a seemingly unsustainable metric.
After going 7-14 from deep in the first half, the Ephs opened the second period 4-5 from long range. Prowitt-Smith came out guns blazing, burying two straight three-pointers to begin the period. A triple from Spivy from the top of the arc put the Ephs up 52-50 less than three minutes into the half, and Karren netted one of his own in response to a Bantams' three-pointer.
"It felt like we were making shots because we were getting great looks," App commented. "We had some of our best possessions of the year where guys could've shot a hard one, but they made sure we got an easy one. The ball was moving, guys were passing up their shot to get their teammate a better one. When you're doing that and playing with that rhythm, you shoot a higher percentage."
Roughley drew three non-shooting fouls in just one minute of game action after checking in off the bench. Finally, he was defended without substantial contact and found the rim to tie the game at 57 with 15:06 remaining.
Trinity went up by two points again, but Hansen used his size advantage on a cut to even the contest at 59.
Hanson's basket would begin an 11-0 run for the Ephs — by far their longest of the contest to that point. Exquisite ball movement on the following offensive possession saw Prowitt-Smith find Karren for two after several quick passes, and Prowitt-Smith took a steal coast-to-coast to apply further pressure. When
Alex Lee noticed the defense was giving him a foot of space, he let it fly like the birds in the sky to increase the Ephs' lead to 66-59 with 11:44 to go.
With just under a quarter left to play, Spivy drew the seventh team foul of the half against the Ephs, placing them in the bonus the rest of the way. He knocked down both attempts for a 70-60 edge.
"One of the broadcasters asked me who we're playing through late in games, and I said Spencer," App said. "He's doing what you hope your seniors do — taking all his knowledge and experience and channeling it in a confident way. On top of all his shots, I thought he was the one driving force where every time something didn't go perfect for us, he was the first one starting the talk of 'next play.' The guys followed him, as you hope."
Hansen slammed home a two-handed jam, but the Bantams scored two consecutive baskets to make the score 72-66. Prowitt-Smith was unphased out of a timeout, however, swishing in his third triple of the evening. On the next play, he showed off his versatility with a fadeaway finish while falling to the hardwood.
As the Ephs continued to garner momentum, Spivy completed an and-one to eclipse the 20-point mark on the evening and extend the lead to 12 with just over six minutes to go. Subsequent three-pointers from Karren and Spivy brought the Ephs lead to 86-68 with 4:53 to go. To that point, the Ephs were 8-10 from deep in the half.
The Bantams hit two consecutive of their own from three-point range to stop a 9-0 Williams run, but found themselves down 12 with 3:52 to play.
The Ephs made free throws down the stretch to finish the job, and Glatzer hit an impossible dagger three-pointer in the final minute to seal the deal.
The Ephs are back in action tomorrow afternoon at Wesleyan in a NESCAC and Little Three showdown. The game will be the first for the Ephs in Silloway Gymnasium since last year's OT conference championship battle.
"You look up and it's February and we have three regular season games left," App said. "Only playing 10 league games, each one matters a lot. We're so excited because you work so hard all year, fight through highs and lows, and you do that to hopefully play meaningful games in February and March. We got to do that tonight, and we get to do it tomorrow against Wesleyan."
