Ephs rally past Lasell College 75-65
Williamstown — After a shaky first half, the Ephs (13-1) upped their defensive pressure to rally past Lasell College (4-7) in the second half in a 75-65 win Tuesday night. Eph sophomore Joe Geoghegan had a monster night, scoring 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting (including three dunks) and grabbing 12 rebounds.Schultz got the Ephs going early when, at the 17-minute mark, he jumped in front of a Laser pass for a steal. The play led to a fast break culminating in a one-handed Schultz jam. On the Ephs’ next offensive possession Chris Shalvoy would find Geoghegan in transition for another slam. Moments later, a Schultz bounce-pass would result in another one-handed Geoghegan throw-down. When the dust had cleared, the Ephs had registered three dunks in less than two minutes.
The show of strength, however, only served to encourage the Lasers. Shortly after Geoghegan’s second dunk, Lasell retaliated with a 21-6 run to take a 26-19 lead to the five-minute mark. A Shalvoy three would bring the Ephs back to within four at 26-22, and Williams would whittle it down to three by halftime in trailing 31-28.
An aggressive man-to-man defense on the part of Lasell made it difficult for the Ephs to move the ball in the first half, and no doubt had a hand in Williams’ 18% shooting from behind the arc. The Lasers, on the other hand, canned an even 50% of their long-range shots, as leading scorer Jaime Crawford went 2 of 3 in the first half for 12 points.
After the Lasers stretched the lead to 37-28 early on in the second half, Geoghegan got things going for the Ephs again. With an offensive rebound and put-back at the 17-minute mark, Geoghegan started a 12-2 run culminating in yet another Shalvoy three to give Williams their first lead since the beginning of the game, 40-39. The run, in large part, occurred after the Ephs turned up their defense out of a timeout at the 16:30 mark. At one point the Ephs forced three straight turnovers, all resulting in easy baskets on the other end.
After a 50% performance from behind the arc in the first half, the Lasers went just 1 of 14 from long-range in the second half. Said Eph coach Dave Paulsen, “We really turned up the defensive intensity in the second half and we did a much better job of covering the three-point line.”
From there Williams would finally start knocking down some shots, as Shalvoy would add another three before Rose got into the mix with two of his own to stretch the Eph lead to almost double digits.
With 2:30 left in the game Geoghegan would get fouled on a lay-up. The three-point play gave Williams their biggest lead of the day at 67-54 and essentially seal the win for the Ephs.
For Lasell, forward Jose Guitian led all scorers with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Crawford was next with 14, however he scored only two in the second half. Guarding Crawford was Eph junior Kevin Snyder. Said Paulsen, “Snyder did a great job defensively. I think we expect a lot from him because he has the ability to be really terrific, but even though he’s not quite where he was offensively [earlier in the year], he did a great job of getting in the lane and he had 7 assists.”
For the Ephs Chris Shalvoy joined Geoghegan in breaking the 20-point barrier, notching 20 points on four three-pointers.
“That team is really talented…I would be shocked if they don’t win a lot of games – they’ve lost some games to some really good teams so far. Right now I’m looking at this as a really good win.”
Williams returns to action on Friday in an away contest at Bowdoin. Game time is set for 7:30 pm.
