Williams Victor Over Guilford; One Away From NCAA Title
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| Co-captain Blake Schultz |
Williams connected on 70 percent from both the floor and beyond the arc. "Man you got to give them credit," said Guilford coach Tom Palumbo. "That team hit 70 percent from the floor and three in the second half and I thought we were guarding them pretty well."
"We re-grouped at halftime and we talked about intangibles more than tactics," said Eph head coach Mike Maker. "We can share the ball and we can shoot; it was more about team chemistry, competitiveness, and our will to win. "We have really good players and we are willing to let them play freely. It's a player's game and not a coach's game."
Williams closed out the contest scoring on 17 of its last 18 last possessions and five of the tallies were long threes. The Ephs also made their last 10 free throws.
With 8:20 left in the game, James Wang was fouled and was awarded a one and one with the Ephs down 59-58. Wang swished the first one and then there was a delay as blood was spotted on Eph Blake Schultz's uniform. Even with the delay turning into a timeout, Wang still made the free throw and gave Williams a lead, 60-59.
At 7:42, Nate Robertson went along the left baseline and then up and under on Guilford's Sanborn to lay it in off the glass putting Williams up 62-61. The lead quickly grew to four when Schultz made a steal and hit Rubin, who nailed a three from the left side.
With just 6:14 to play, Tyler Sanborn was fouled underneath the hoop and his two free throws cut the Eph lead to one, 67-66.
A three by Schultz and two free throws from Robertson gave the Ephs a lead of four 72-68 with 5:26 left.
A Josh Pittman 12-foot jumper gave the Guilford Quakers their last lead 73-72 with 4:25 left. The Guilford lead was quickly extinguished when Alex Rubin hit a long three from the left of the key with 4:01 remaining. The gutty Quakers were not done yet, though as Rhett Bonner drained two charity tosses to tie the game at 75 with 3:43 left. A traditional three-point play by Rhett Bonner answered a three from the Ephs' Blake Schultz and the game was knotted at 78.
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Wang lofted a long three from the top of the key and the swish gave Williams a five-point lead, 80-85, but again Sanborn recorded an inside tally and the Quakers were down three.
The Ephs then got the lead to five when Schultz went along the left baseline and dropped the ball off to Troy Whittington who flushed it with 1:14 left.
Rhett Bonner got Guilford to within three, 87-84, with two free throws at 1:09, but the Ephs scored 10 of the last 14 points of the contest on a Wang jumper, two Wang free throws, two from Robertson and four from Blake Schultz.
Asked about the second half, Mike Maker said, "We went small for the last 18 minutes and that's our best lineup."
Rubin noted that coach Maker, "has told us all year long to enjoy the journey and that's what we are doing." Schultz, when asked what he thought about playing his last game tomorrow, said, "This is the first time I've thought about tomorrow being my last game, but it's great ... the whole senior class is really excited about tomorrow and playing for one another."
In gearing up for the final game, Maker said, "We talk about playing to the best of our ability, enjoying the journey and being a good teammate. We don't really focus on the other team."
Williams drained 19-27 from the floor in the second half (70 percent) and the Ephs were a speck hotter from distance making 10 of 14 for 71.4 percent. Guilford made 45 percent of their shots in the contest.
Guilford's Tyler Sanborn led all scorers with 27 and all rebounders with 13. Schultz led a quintet of Ephs in double figures with 25. James Wang had 19, Alex Rubin 18 (all on threes), Nate Robertson 14 and Troy Whittington added 11.
Guilford won the battle of the boards 34-31.
Blake Schultz's 25 points lifted him into 4th place on the Eph all-time points list with 1,508.
The Guilford Quakers used a late surge highlighted by three swishes from beyond the arc to build an eight-point lead on Williams in the first half. Clay Henson hit two and Rhett Bonner made one of the threes.
Guilford erased a Williams 30-21 lead with a 22-5 run to close out the half.
With 2:37 left in the half Brad Monroe hits two free throws to tie the game at 32. After a Williams turnover, Clay Henson hit his first three from the left side with just under two minutes remaining before intermission, giving the Quakers their first lead.
Coming out of a media time out, Rhett Bonner stole the Eph inbounds pass and found Henson on the right side for a three boosting the Guilford lead to six, 38-32. Bonner elevated the Quakers lead to nine with a three of his own to make it 41-32.
Another empty trip down the court gave the Quakers the ball again and Tyler Sanborn scored off a feed from T.C. Anderson. Sanborn was fouled, but he missed the free throw lays the ball in, but misses free throw. Guilford led 43-32.
Alex Rubin managed to get three back for the Ephs before the half ended off a feed from Nate Robertson.
The Ephs Joe Geoghegan grabbed his 749th career rebound with 2:40 left in the half. Geoghegan's six rebounds helped the Eph lead on the glass 22-17. Tyler Sanborn led both teams grabbing eight. Geoghegan is now third all-time in rebounds at Williams.
Rubin had nine points at the break for Williams, while the Quakers got 15 from Clay Henson and 13 from Sanborn.
The Ephs had trouble holding onto the ball in the first half, recording 11 turnovers, while Guilford only turned it over twice. The Eph season average for an entire game is 11.6. The 11 Eph miscues resulted in 13 points for the Quakers. "We were trying to do too much in the first half," said Maker.
The NCAA Division III national championship game will be televised live on the CBS College Sports Network at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The CBS College Sports Network is available on DirecTV (613), DishNet (152) and Bell TV (413). Check your local listings for channel availability.
