Middletown, CT.— At the half, Williams (9-4, 0-1 NESCAC) was down by five. Coming out of the break, Shane Regan, who already had 12, asserted himself on the offensive end, sinking a three and two free throws to give Wesleyan (15-0, 1-0 NESCAC) a double digit advantage.
In the Ephs' last matchup against the Cardinals, on Dec. 7th, Williams had a hard time keeping up with Wesleyan's physicality and pace. This time, the Ephs made sure to give their opponents a much tougher challenge.
Alex Lee scored first after Regan's last free throw, driving to the basket and finishing.
Aidan Yates, the Ephs' leading scorer tonight (18pts) followed up with a layup of his own, finishing on the fast break after
Evan Glatzer picked up a steal.
Yates got his first start tonight, as the Ephs' coaching staff continues to make rotational adjustments. "Ideally as a coach you wish you had the rotation set by now, but, it's just been a long haul of injuries and different things for us," said Eph head coach
Kevin App.
"As we've added new bodies back, we've been trying to figure out the best way to get people minutes and the rotation set, and [Aidan's] strengths— scoring the basketball, shooting the basketball, they add to the lineup a little bit, so I thought he performed great."
The next points involved Yates and Glatzer, too, as Glatzer swung to Yates for a triple. A few possessions later, the Ephs got a stop. Glatzer pulled down the board and went coast-to-coast. The ten point lead had vanished into thin air— 42-41 Wesleyan.
Shane Regan and Nicky Johnson, the Cardinals' two leading scorers, responded, finishing in the paint on back to back possessions. However, for the next six-and-a-half, it was almost all Williams, as the Ephs went on a dominant 15-6 run.
Brandon Roughley,
Hudson Hansen,
Ben McGraw (back from injury) and
Aidan Yates all put up points in the period, attacking the paint and getting to the line. After Hansen's last bucket, a reverse layup assisted by
Jackson Rein, the Ephs were up 56-52.
Unfortunately, just then the Ephs' energy seemed to flag, and the Cardinals found themselves again. Josh Cameron got left open for a huge corner three, which he buried to shrink the gap.
Jackson Rein drove middle on the next one, getting past his defender with a burst of speed to lay it up and in.
Sam Pohlman drove, coming to a jump stop and pivoting into a tough look off the glass for two. After the Ephs couldn't get it to fall, Regan attacked the paint. His shot was too strong, but Nicky Johnson grabbed an offensive board, went up, and scored to take back the lead for the Cardinals.
The battle for offensive rebounds was one aspect of this game where Wesleyan had the upper hand. Wesleyan pulled down 17 offensive boards to the Ephs' 6, and buckets like Johnson's transformed these extra chances into points.
On these offensive boards, Eph head coach
Kevin App said: "That's who Wesleyan is, that's part of their identity— and they're good at it. It's an area we've been working on, an area we were talking about, but they really executed that part of their identity tonight."
On the other end,
Hudson Hansen swung it to
Noah Dinkins, who confidently rose up for three, making his first shot of the game and giving the Ephs a two-point lead. Back on defense, he came up big again, blocking Oscar Edelman's layup.
"Noah performed great, defending like he always does, and then hit a huge shot which I thought was going to help us win the game," said App on this pivotal sequence.
Edelman got another try the next time down, as Zach Wolinski got a steal and Nicky Johnson tallied his 7th assist passing to Edelman on the break. Now all tied up at 61 with 3:42 left, both teams would need to make a play to take the game.
Wesleyan rose to the challenge, making a free throw and then a three to give them a 65-61 lead. The Ephs couldn't break through the Cardinals' tough defense, and their score would remain at 61 until the final buzzer.
The Ephs fouled in a final effort to get the ball, and Sam Pohlman sank both shots to seal the deal, giving Wesleyan the hard-fought 67-61 win.
"All in all, I was proud of our guys' fight and competitiveness, and we put ourselves in a position against a 14-0 team to win a game in the last minute," said App after the game. "It just came down to they made two plays and we didn't, unfortunately."
"I thought we competed together, played really hard, and so did they— that's what these NESCAC weekends are about," he continued. "Like I said, I'm proud of our guys' competitiveness and fight. A bunch of different guys stepped up and made big plays and I think all of that's going to serve us positively moving forward."
The Ephs play again tomorrow at 3pm, against #6 Trinity in Hartford, CT.
