Williamstown, MASS.— Colby (13-8, 4-3 NESCAC) and Williams (14-7, 3-4 NESCAC) came into today's game with almost identical records overall. While the Mules had the edge on NESCAC performance, it was natural to expect a close contest tonight.
The first nine minutes matched those expectations. Though Colby maintained the lead or tied the whole time, the teams went bucket for bucket, and the Ephs never trailed far behind.
Big men scored the game's first points. The Mules' 2nd leading scorer, Jack Lawson, struck first, catching a guard's pass going downhill for two. The Ephs'
Brandon Roughley hit next, receiving the extra pass from
Hudson Hansen in the mid post for Williams' first two.
Lawson had 9 of Colby's first 19 points. When he took his first trip to the bench, his backup Ben Civello stepped up. A kick out to the 6'10" center only stayed in his hands for a moment before it was sailing towards the hoop to put the Mules up 6.
The Ephs recovered well, as
Noah Dinkins scored with a tough reverse, and on the next play
Aidan Yates dropped in a triple. At 11:11 in the first, it was 19-18 Colby. But then, the Mules pulled ahead further.
Though Sam Hinman started things off with a three, the 8-0 run was built on the efforts of Jack Lawson, who scored an uninterrupted 6 to give Colby a 9 point lead. At this point, he'd already scored 14, more than his season average of 13.3.
However, after the brief Mules run, the Ephs took back the reins, scoring 25 to Colby's 8 to end the half. It was a mix of aggression and patience that allowed Williams to finish out the period so well.
The Ephs attacked the paint possession after possession, but didn't barrel into the contesting defense. Instead, they waited for their defenders to bite.
Evan Glatzer picked up an offensive board and popped it to
Brandon Roughley for two.
Glatzer and
Noah Dinkins finished buckets off two feet in the lane, using spins to create space. A pass into
Hudson Hansen collapsed the defense, and an extra pass to the wide open
Alex Lee gave the Ephs an easy three.
After a while, Williams got hot.
Aidan Yates snaked into the lane, brushed off his defender, and finished in the middle for two.
Alex Lee sank one of his patented pull up jumpers. Yates, Lee, and
Sammy Cooley rounded out the half with consecutive threes, splashing no matter regardless of distance or good defense.
Going into the second quarter, Williams had climbed back, and now had an 8 point lead, 43-35. As all NESCAC games go, tonight's match was far from over.
The Mules went on an 11-4 run to start the quarter, still led by Jack Lawson, who scored another 6 points. The run was broken by a barrage of threes for the Ephs and the efforts of
Jackson Rein.
Rein scored a quick 5 around the 15-minute mark, dropping in a triple, and then receiving the hand off from Roughley for a layup. The Ephs ratcheted up on the defensive end too, denying Lawson the ball down low, then stonewalling Colby leading scorer Max Poulton, who'd been kept to just 2 of his usual 15 points so far.
Eph head coach
Kevin App addressed the effective defense on Poulton, saying, "Foul trouble helped us out a little bit where he couldn't get out there as much, but I thought all the guys— Noah, Aidan, Hudson— all the guys we asked to guard him, did a good job."
"He hit a couple late because he's a really, really good player, but even those were hard ones," he said, referring to points that came later down the stretch.
In two minutes,
Hudson Hansen,
Declan Porter, and
Jackson Rein dropped in triples. The run was capped off by Rein, who drove middle, shrugged off his defender, and laid it up to score his 10th point in seven minutes. The Ephs now led 68-53.
With just over eight minutes to play, it was now-or-never for the Mules. Max Poulton finally got going, scoring at the rim, from the line, and most importantly, from three— he hit three triples down the stretch to keep his team in the game.
After he reached the 15 points he's averaging, Sam Hinman put in one more from the corner, and a 15 point lead had shrunk to 5. There was a minute and thirty left, and the Ephs just had to close out— something they've been getting better and better at.
Alex Lee scored once more from the floor, and then the Ephs made nine free throws to hold onto the lead, finishing out the game 90-83.
Five Ephs broke double digits, and 90 points is the most Williams has scored all year. The bright spot for the Mules was Jack Lawson, whose 30 points marks a career high for the senior.
"I thought it was a really great NESCAC game," said coach App, referring to the tendency of these games to be so competitive. "I'm really proud of our guys. Colby's a great offensive team and has been playing really well, and they played really well tonight. I think we took everything they threw at us and kept making plays on both ends. Nothing perfect, but I'm really proud. They tried multiple defenses, and we had no turnovers in the first half, maybe for the only time all season. All the things you hope you're doing this time of year."
On the high-scoring team effort, App said: "It's what you hope. You can tell why rotations are hard, because we have a lot of really good guys. I think that's like four or five games where everyone that came in made plays that they're best at— whether it's shooting, driving, defensive plays, rebounding, whatever it is. And that's what you mean by roles. It's like, sometimes players think 'minutes' when you talk about roles, but really it's what you're doing when you're out there."
He concluded by looking forward, saying: "These guys give us a lot of confidence, seeing that come together. They're finally letting go of all the stuff in their head and they're just out there playing together. They know each other well. We just keep talking about it. That's a great start to the weekend, we gotta do it again tomorrow."
The Ephs play Bowdoin tomorrow, again at home in Chandler. Tipoff will be at 3pm.
