TROY, N.Y. — The Williams men's basketball team defeated the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Red Hawks (2-3) Tuesday night, 105-60. With the win, the Ephs stay perfect at 5-0 to start the year.
Williams went up early and never looked back. The Ephs took the early 10-0 lead before the Red Hawks were able to finish from behind the arc with a bucket from Brendan Farley. The Ephs opened with a long ball apiece from James Klemm and Taylor Epley as well as a lay-up from Epley off of a pretty pass from Daniel Wohl and a bucket inside from Nate Robertson.
Following the Red Hawks' hoop from Farley, the Ephs went on a 15-5 run — the highlights of which were a beautiful dunk by Epley that was assisted by Robertson and another by Sean Hoffmann that was assisted by Matt McCreary.
The Ephs were strong on the defensive end of the floor as well as they held the Red Hawks without a field goal for over four minutes. Nick Keefe finally ended the drought for RPI with a pretty jumper with 3:09 left to play in the first. The Ephs continued to push in their offensive zone, and with their tough play at both ends of the floor, they entered the locker room with the 67-32 lead.
To start the second half, the two teams traded three pointers — Klemm sunk two pretty ones for the Ephs and Farley responded with two for the Red Hawks. The Ephs, however, then responded with a 14-2 run that spanned just over four minutes. The run consisted of a pair of free throws each from Epley, Michael Mayer, and Ryan Kilcullen, a lay-up apiece from Mayer and Robertson, a jumper from Epley and another beautiful dunk from Sean Hoffmann. The run finally ended with a free throw from Jesus Cardenas, but the Ephs held RPI without a field goal for another two minutes — a drought ended with a lay-up from Daniel Martin.
Despite a hard fought effort from RPI on both ends of the floor, the Ephs' explosive offense proved overwhelming as they walked off the court with the victory.
Leading the way tonight for the Ephs was Epley with 26 points. Mayer posted a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds — including six on the offensive end. Klemm, Hoffmann, and Kilcullen were all in double digits as well with 14, 12, and 11 points respectively. Klemm was 5-for-6 from the field on the night. Twelve of the 13 Ephs who played today scored. No Red Hawk was in double digits this evening, but Farley led the way with nine points. The Ephs shot 58 percent from the field on the night and held RPI to just 26 percent from the floor.
The Ephs return to the court Saturday to take on Stevens at home. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.
