The Eph's Win Over Wesleyan, 87-57
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It was senior day for the Ephs, and not surprisingly the seniors showed up in a big way right out of the gate. Foremost among them was Matt Weisbrot, who scored 8 points while grabbing 13 rebounds in the first half alone. Point guard Chris Shalvoy led the team with 10 points in the first half, including two three-pointers and a driving lay-up towards the end of the half to give the Ephs their biggest lead of the half at 46-24.
Williams jumped out to an early lead in large part to a stellar defensive performance in the first half, holding the Cardinals to just 23 percent shooting from the floor. The Ephs handy glasswork proved to their advantage for the second straight night, as Williams more than doubled Wesleyan's rebounding total in the first half.
By pressing their size advantage with Joe Geoghegan and Weisbrot, Williams mounted a 13-2 advantage on second-chance points in the first half, allowing them to stretch the lead to 22 despite shooting a respectable yet unimpressive 43 percent from the field.
If the outcome was still in doubt, Williams would fix that right out of the locker room in the second half. The Ephs started the half with a 14-2 run to go up 60-26. Highlighting the run were two Chris Rose threes; the first of which at the 18:30 mark garnered a standing ovation, as Rose had struggled from the field before that.
With 15 minutes left, senior guard Brendan Hanifin checked into the game, marking the first time all four Eph seniors were on the floor together. After a brief stint with this lineup Paulsen sent the subs in, and the seniors headed to the bench amidst a standing ovation.
It was more of the same after that, with Williams stretching the lead to 38 points at one point during the game. Almost everyone on the Williams bench got some action in the blowout victory as freshman Troy Whittington, Ethan sophomore Timmins-Schiffman and freshman Mike Moorstein contributed some solid minutes.
There were few bright spots for Wesleyan, as no player reached double-digits in points on the night. Guard Ezzaak Diggs led the team with 8 points on an efficient 3 for 4 from the field, and former Eph Kevin Scura chipped in with 6 points.
For the Ephs, in addition to Weisbrot and Shalvoy, sophomore Blake Schultz turned in a perfect performance: 4-for-4 from the field, and 5-for-5 from the free throw line for a team-leading 14 points. Schultz also got the Ephs started on the right foot by converting a three-point play for the Ephs first basket of the night.
Said Eph coach Dave Paulsen, "This weekend was what we needed ... we won a game last night where we really, really struggled, and then today we finally got back to playing some basketball – it was nice to send our seniors out on a positive note ... those four guys are really special to us."
When asked how he felt about heading into the NESCAC playoffs next week and the potential match up the Ephs might encounter, Paulsen quipped, "I feel a lot better than I did three days ago – last night even," but added "we know it's more about how we play and what we do; taking care of what we can take care of."
Regarding the game itself, Paulsen was pleased that the Ephs "did a much better job getting our running game going which we haven’t done in a while, and we did a real solid job defensively."
Besides getting the win, the most important part of Saturday's game might've been senior Chris Rose breaking out of his shooting slump in the second half.
"Chris has meant so much to this team and to this program ... he's struggled and, you know, your heart goes out to him because nobody cares more," said Paulsen. "Athletics, you know, it's not all peaches and cream and it probably hasn’t gone the way you diagram it for your senior year, so it was nice for him to get a couple. Last night was our Texas-league single, I think the second half today was his."
Williams will enter the NESCAC tournament next weekend as the No. 6 seed. Opponent and game time are TBA.
