Ephs Men Break Losing Streak Against Camels
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The Ephs won the tip and scored the first bucket, but the Camels would respond with a 9-0 run. Weisbrot would get Williams back on the board with a nice offensive rebound and put-back with just under 15 minutes to go in the half, but by the midway mark of the half the Camels lead 17-8.
Kevin Snyder brought the Ephs roaring back with a three-pointer at just under the nine minute mark to make it 19-11. After some great ball movement Snyder would hit another just moments later as Williams pulled to within three.
With 1:18 to go in the half, Eph big man Matt Weisbrot grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back to bring Williams to within one, 28-27. The score would stand through halftime.
The Ephs shot just 33 percent from the field in the first half but kept themselves in the game with some great glasswork, out-rebounding the Camels 22-13 with a whopping 9-0 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Shooter Billy Karis paced the Camels with a couple big three-pointers and finished the half with 8 points. For the Ephs it was Snyder leading the way with 11.
Karis would start the Camels off on the right hoof to start the half with a driving three-point play. Geoghegan would answer for the Ephs to make it 32-29, but a 9-2 Connecticut run would give the Camels their second-biggest lead of the game at 41-31.
Again Snyder would start the Ephs along the comeback trail, this time with a hard drive to the hoop for a lay-up and the foul. Snyder would miss the free throw but get fouled on the next Eph possession and make both to pull Williams to within six.
As they did almost all game, the Camels would respond, as senior Jeff Young laid one in just before the shot-clock expired to put Connecticut back up by eight, 43-35.
The Ephs would hang tough though, scratching and clawing to stay within striking distance until a Chris Shalvoy three narrowed the gap to just one, 50-49. Williams would feed off the momentum of the shot and draw an offensive foul on the other end, and on the ensuing Eph possession Shalvoy would hit a floater to give Williams their first lead since the opening possession of the game, 51-50.
Said Eph coach Dave Paulsen, "Shalvoy really struggled the whole game, but then he hits two big shots down the stretch which is what we’ve come to expect from him."
The Camels regained the lead briefly on a Christian Mosley basket, but a Joe Geoghegan tip-in would put the Ephs back up by one. A defensive stop and clutch free throws from Snyder, Shalvoy, and Weisbrot would finally lock up the victory for the Ephs.
Said Paulsen, "That was a great character win ... truthfully I told our guys maybe we needed to win that way more than coming out and shooting the lights out ... we proved to ourselves that we could struggle, we could be behind, and still get a win."
Connecticut shot 48 percent from the field on the game, as a Camel offensive laden with backdoor cuts gave Williams problems throughout the game. In the lead for Connecticut was speedy point guard Christian Mosley, who finished the game with 15 points and single-handedly kept the Camels in the game during the final minutes of the game.
Williams finished the game as they finished the half, shooting just 33 percent. The Ephs, however, beat the Camels on the offensive glass 19-1 and scored 19 second-chance points to Connecticut’s none. Leading the way on the glass for Williams was Joe Geoghegan, who grabbed nine offensive rebounds en route to a 23 point, 15 rebound performance.
Paulsen expects the Ephs, who had lost their last five in a row before Friday, to build momentum from the win:
"It's like a guy in baseball who’s in a hitting slump and keeps making outs hitting line drives, and then he hits a Texas-leaguer and all of a sudden he's out of his slump ... you could probably call tonight a Texas-leaguer, but we'll take it."
