Williams tops SUNYIT 104-70 to advance to Sectional
Finals
Williamstown, MA – Williams placed four players in
double figures with seniors Alex Rubin, Blake Schultz and sophomore
James Wang all netting 21 points and junior Troy Whittington adding
13 in the 104-70 defeat of the SUNYIT Wildcats.
Williams will face Brandeis, a 74-65 winner over Rhode Island
College in the first semifinal of the night, tomorrow night at 7:00
PM at Williams for the right to advance to Salem, VA for the Final
Four March 19 and 20.
With the win Williams improves to 28-1 and sets a school record
with 19 consecutive in-season wins. SUNYIT had its 18-game win
streak snapped with loss and the Wildcats finish the year at 26-5.
Just over a minute into the second half the Wildcats Kevin
Cappiello hit a three from the top of the key to close the Williams
lead to 50-39. The Cappiello three started a run in the game that
featured seven consecutive threes with SUNYIT hitting three and
Williams making four.
The Ephs Rubin followed Cappiello, who followed Rubin who was
followed by the Ephs’ Harlan Dodson. Next came Alex
Rubin’s seventh three of the game. The Wildcats’ Diloo
Brown converted the sixth consecutive three and Wang tallied the
seventh of the cascade of triples.
The string of threes was ended with, of all things, a traditional three-point play by Wang who scored on a drive down the lane and made the resulting free throw.
Williams was a blistering 17 of 27 from beyond the arc (63%) on the night and Rubin led the way swishing 7 of 9. SUNYIT connected on 11 of 29 from distance (38%). Diloo Brown, playing in his final collegiate contest, posted a game-high 26 points, including six threes. Also in double figures for the Wildcats were David Golembiowski (14) and Kevin Cappiello (11).
James Wang snared seven rebounds to lead Williams on the glass and Golembiowski collected a game-high 9. Williams out rebounded SUNYIT on the night 33-27.
Tied at eight with 16:56 to play in the first half host Williams went on a 10-0 run to open up the contest and take control 18-8.
Senior co-captain Blake Schultz started the Williams run when he made all three free throws after being fouled in front of the SUNYIT bench attempting a three. On the next Eph possession Harlan Dodson buried a three from the right corner.
An Ethan Timmins-Schiffman put-back off a spin move was followed by a Schultz baseline jumper.
The Wildcats of SUNYIT then got a Floyd Thorne layin to stop the
Eph run at 13:01. Thorne then later cut the Eph lead to five,
20-15, on another drive to the hoop.
The Ephs Alex Rubin answered Thornes buckets with a three.
An alley-oop dunk by Floyd Thorne resulted in a technical foul on Thorne for taunting. James Wang hit both free throws to give Williams a 27-19 lead and another Rubin three and a jumper by Robertson make it lifted the Ephs to a 32-19 lead.
Whittington’s third dunk of the half off a feed from Harlan Dodson made it Williams 36-24 Williams. Alex Rubin drained a corner three from the left side and the Ephs led 39-26. Whittington cleaned up a bad pass with a banker from 10 feet out on the left putting Williams up 41-26.
Williams took a 50-34 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Alex Rubin led all scorers with 15 points connecting on five of
six three-pointers. Williams made 7 of 12 from beyond the arc in
the first half and made 18 of 32 floor shots.
SUNYIT was 13-31 from the floor and four of 13 from distance.
Diloo Brown led the Wildcats with 13 points and David Golembiowski
netted 11.
Williams had 17 first half rebounds to SUNYIT’s 15.
