WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Williams men’s basketball stretched its run as the second-ranked team in the country to four weeks following its 77-62 defeat of Wesleyan in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament on Saturday. The Ephs, who currently are 24-1 on the season and hold the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC tournament, sit behind 22-2 Washington University in the poll for the second consecutive week. However, the gap between the two teams in points in the poll dropped from six points last week to four points in the newest poll. Wash. U locked up the country’s first automatic bid to the NCAA tournament last weekend when it clinched the UAA regular season title last weekend with its 65-62 defeat of Case Western.
NESCAC rival Middlebury is also ranked in this week’s poll, as the Panthers, who are seeded second in the NESCAC tournament, held firm at No. 6 following a tight 56-52 win in the NESCAC quarters against Trinity. Colby, the third seed in the NESCAC tournament, is the only other NESCAC team to receive votes , though the Mules remained unranked following their 67-49 quarterfinal defeat of Amherst on Saturday.
The Ephs, Panthers, and Mules will be joined by fourth-seeded Bates in the NESCAC semifinals on Saturday, which will be held in Chandler Gymnasium. The Ephs will face off against the Bobcats in the opening game, which will take place at 2 p.m., before the Panthers and Mules face off at 4. The championship will be held on Sunday at 12 pm; the winner of the tournament championship will be awarded the conference’s automatic NCAA bid.
Williams, which stood 9-0 in the conference after regular season play, have statistically led the conference on both the team and individual levels. The Ephs stand atop the conference with their 86.6 points per game, 21 point scoring margin, 53% field goal shoot, 76% free throw shooting, 46% three point shooting, 7.9 rebound margin, and 1.35 assist-turnover ratio.
Meanwhile, co-captain Blake Schultz is the conference’s leading scorer with 19 points per game and the leading three-point shooter with 55% of shots made. James Wang is not far behind Schultz on the conference leader boards: his 16.7 points per game is second on the Ephs and fifth in the conference, his 52% three-point shooting is second on the team and in the conference, and his 57% overall shooting mark leads all guards in the NESCAC. Wang also leads the Ephs in assists with 4.56 per game, which places him third in the NESCAC. The sophomore guard was awarded NESCAC player of the week for his performance against Wesleyan, when he scored a career-high 30 points, snagged four boards, and assisted on two buckets. Meanwhile, Troy Whittington leads the conference in field goal percentage with a remarkable 70% shooting, and co-captain Joe Geoghegan leads the way for the Ephs on the board with 8.2 per game, good for third in the conference.
For more NESCAC stats, click here.
The entirety of t he D3Hoops.com national rankings, through games played on Feb. 21:
| # | Team | W-L | Pts. | Last Week |
| 1 | Washington U. (13) | 22-2 | 609 | 1 |
| 2 | Williams (12) | 24-1 | 605 | 2 |
| 3 | St. Thomas | 23-2 | 571 | 3 |
| 4 | Guilford | 23-2 | 540 | 4 |
| 5 | Whitworth | 23-2 | 480 | 7 |
| 6 | Middlebury | 23-2 | 479 | 6 |
| 7 | Eastern Mennonite | 21-3 | 471 | 12 |
| 8 | UW-Whitewater | 21-4 | 436 | 9 |
| 9 | UW-Stevens Point | 21-4 | 430 | 5 |
| 10 | William Paterson | 23-2 | 374 | 8 |
| 11 | Virginia Wesleyan | 21-4 | 344 | 10 |
| 12 | Chapman | 22-2 | 334 | 13 |
| 13 | MIT | 22-3 | 313 | 11 |
| 14 | St. Mary's (Md.) | 22-3 | 297 | 17 |
| 15 | Texas-Dallas | 21-4 | 262 | 19 |
| 16 | Carthage | 20-5 | 216 | 20 |
| 17 | St. Norbert | 20-3 | 210 | 14 |
| 18 | Randolph-Macon | 20-5 | 196 | 16 |
| 19 | Wooster | 20-5 | 184 | 21 |
| 20 | Franklin and Marshall | 21-4 | 171 | 15 |
| 21 | Cabrini | 23-2 | 142 | 22 |
| 22 | St. John Fisher | 21-4 | 117 | 23 |
| 23 | Anderson | 21-4 | 114 | 18 |
| 24 | John Carroll | 19-5 | 83 | 25 |
| 25 | Central | 21-4 | 32 | — |
Dropped out: No. 24 Medaille.
Others receiving votes: Merchant Marine 25, Maryville (Tenn.) 15, Defiance 13, Illinois Wesleyan 11, Wheaton (Ill.) 11, Gordon 10, UW-La Crosse 8, Brandeis 5, Calvin 5, SUNY-Old Westbury 4, Rutgers-Newark 3, Colby 2, Wittenberg 2, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 1.
Poll courtesy of D3Hoops.com
