Men's recap: Some survived Saturday; some went splat

Jan 07, 2023
Jeff Hunter (13) put up 13 points and 13 rebounds in Keene State's home win against Western Connecticut State.
Keene State athletics file photo
 

A rare UAA Saturday saw No. 18 NYU take its first loss off the season and No. 5 Rochester fall at No. 22 Emory. Meanwhile, No. 2 Randolph-Macon, No. 6 Keene State, No. 9 Case Western Reserve and No. 17 Swarthmore all survived with close wins. That and more in the Saturday men's recap.

The NYU men have had great non-conference records before only to fall flat in UAA play, and while Saturday's game was just one of 14 conference games, it doesn't bode well for the Violets. NYU made the relatively short conference trip to Boston and was nearly outscored by the Brandeis reserves, as the Judges from off the bench scored 53 points in an 81-61 win. Dylan Lien and Ethan Edwards combined for 50 of those points, and Brandeis also held NYU to its lowest point total of the season. The Violets (11-1, 0-1 UAA) had averaged 96.9 points per game entering the day. Quinn Clark converted a three-point play with just under eight minutes left to get NYU within four at 58-54, but Brandeis held the Violets to just two field goals the rest of the way, finishing the game on a 23-7 surge.

A dominant second half helped No. 22 Emory prevail 87-76 at home against No. 5 University of Rochester in the teams' University Athletic Association opener. Freshman Benjamin Pearce continued his recent torrid pace with a season-high 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting, his fourth consecutive game over 20 points while classmate Jair Knight was a catalyst off the bench, tying a season-high with 19 points and contributing eight rebounds, four steals and three assists. Sophomore Cale Martens notched his second straight double-double, going for 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Spencer Aronson put up 18 points off the bench and Jeff Hunter had a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds as No. 6 Keene State held off Western Connecticut 71-68 in overtime in Keene, New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon. Both teams entered the game undefeated. Western Conn. led by 10 points with 3:18 to play in regulation before the Owls closed the second half on a 13-3 run. Aronson made three of his six 3-pointers on the afternoon in that final run. The Colonials trailed throughout overtime, but Jalen Jackson had a look at a 3-pointer at the end of the game, a shot which fell short.

Josh Talbert tallied 17 points, including eight in a 15-7 run over the final seven minutes, as No. 2 Randolph-Macon outlasted No. 24 Guilford 59-56. Talbert hit a 3-pointer to put Randolph-Macon on top for good at 52-51 with 3:20 remaining. With the shot clock running down, he made another desperation trey to give R-MC a 55-51 lead with 1:51 left. Talbert picked up the ball off the floor from the far win and heaved it into the basket. Talbert also hit two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to seal the 59-56 win.

No. 17 Swarthmore took down Franklin & Marshall, 94-93, in a double-overtime thriller. The Garnet remained perfect in the Centennial Conference as they captured their eighth consecutive win. Vinny DeAngelo had his fifth 20-plus point game of the season as he matched a career-high of 33 points with 11 rebounds for the guard's first career double-double. The junior was nearly perfect from the foul line as he made 12-of-14, which included several key free throws. George Visconti added 19 points with seven assists and five rebounds. The Diplomats struggled from the foul line, making just 16 of 35 free throws. That includes a 1-for-8 performance by Josh Parra, who finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots.

York (Pa.) came into its game with No. 7 Christopher Newport riding a five-game winning streak, and the Spartans nearly extended it before falling at home 75-72 in overtime. York (7-7) went on a 9-2 run late in regulation to tie the game at 65. The teams traded threes before going to overtime. The Spartans didn't score until 2:21 left in the extra session but CNU (15-2) struggled to score as well, meaning York trailed just 71-70. Matthew Brodie hit a three with 1:55 left to put CNU up 74-70. Jayden Rowe hit a basket a little over a minute later to cut the deficit to two, but a tremendous defensive play by Rodney Graves on a Spartan fast break attempt forced York to foul with 26 seconds left. Trey Barber split a pair to put CNU up three but the Spartans could not get a clean look from three as the clock ran out.

No. 9 Case Western Reserve got 21 points from Ian Elam and 16 points from Cole Frilling, including the 1,000th of his career, as the Spartans got past archrival Carnegie Mellon 74-69. Elam shot 10-for-13 from the floor to give the Spartans (11-0, 1-0 UAA) an inside presence on a day in which they shot just 5-for-25 from 3-point range.

Jonathan Park had nine blocked shots to set the Nazareth career mark for blocks as the No. 20 Golden Flyers escaped Houghton (2-9, 1-4 Empire 8) with a 72-66 win on the road. Zach Stenglein had a team-leading 18 points, including a key 8-for-8 performance from the foul line, to help Nazareth improve to 11-0, 5-0 E8. Houghton led by as many as eight early in the second half.

Catholic improved to a program-best 13-0 on Saturday evening, rolling past Scranton 80-59. Sean Neylon scored 25 points on 9-for-12 shooting, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range in the win. With 11:13 remaining in Saturday's contest, Scranton's Stephen Braunstein scored to cut the Catholic lead to 49-48. Catholic coach Aaron Kelly proceeded to call a timeout. After the timeout, Catholic took over, ending the game on a 31-11 run. Catholic joins St. Joseph (Conn.), Case Western Reserve and Keene State as the only remaining unbeaten teams in Division III men's basketball.

It's just four because Josh Wright scored 19 points, Connor Dickerson had 18 and Damian Smith tallied 17 to lead Rowan to an 87-70 win over Kean, handing the visiting Cougars their first loss of the season and giving the Profs (11-3, 7-0 NJAC) sole possession of first place in the conference as the league's only undefeated team in NJAC play. Kean had started the season 13-0. Wright tied his season-high with 19 points in 19 minutes off the bench as he connected on six of his eight field goal attempts, made two threes and had a block, a steal and an assist.

Logan Wendell scored the last seven points of the contest to help Ithaca rally from a five-point deficit in the final minute and defeat Hobart 75-74. Cairn held Wilson to 20% shooting from 3-point range and the Highlanders got 20 from Derian Bradford to defeat the defending CSAC champ 69-58. Cairn starts the conference slate 2-0 and improves to 7-6 overall.