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| Christopher Newport survives and will play at Guilford this upcoming weekend. Photo by Pete Meshanic, d3photography.com |
Three NESCAC teams and three ODAC teams advanced to the Sweet 16, Christopher Newport's title defense remained alive, and host teams Catholic, NYU, Oswego State and John Carroll all went down in Saturday's second-round action in the Division III men's basketball NCAA Tournament.
The Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds will be hosted at Hampden-Sydney; Guilford; Trine and Trinity (Conn.). Trine is geographically advantageous for the committee because it is within 500 miles of Case Western Reserve, UW-Platteville and Washington U., and Trinity is within 500 miles of Randolph-Macon and Tufts, while it's 539 miles from Tufts to Randolph-Macon, which would require an additional flight.
Cole Prowitt-Smith hit an acrobatic up-and-under with 0.7 seconds to play and Williams held on to win at Oswego State, 79-77. After Jeremiah Sparks hit a three-pointer from the corner to put the hosts up by two, Prowitt-Smith blew past his defender for a layup to tie the game. The Ephs turned Oswego over and Prowitt-Smith got to the line, where he made two free throws. Ahkee Anderson hit a baseline fadeaway jumper to tie it back up at 77 apiece, but Prowitt-Smith was the man once again in the closing moments to give his team the lead.
"We drew up a play," said Eph coach Kevin App on those final moments. "We've really been doing a great job attacking the paint and the rim, so we drew up a play to do that. They're really well coached, so they showed man and then jumped into the zone. Cole didn't overreact, and made a play that probably only Cole could make. I'm just really happy for him to have that moment, and I know the team was thrilled."
Sparks had a decent look at a long three, but it was off to the left and Williams advanced to the round of 16 for the second time in three seasons. Prowitt-Smith finished with a team-high 27 points.
Christopher Newport gave up a 13-point lead, and missed four consecutive free throws in the closing minute, but still had enough to get past Widener on the road by a 70-65 score. In a crazy year where two key players from their national title team have been shown the door, the Captains got through to the round of 16 in large part on the strength of their freshmen, as Isaiah Dozier, Tyson Henderson, Toa Hollenback and Ethan Ward combined for half ot the team's total: 35 points. Jahn Hines scored a game-high 24 points on 12-for-21 shooting, but it was his brother who was the focus of the final minute, as he missed four consecutive free throws with 40 and 36 seconds left that kept the game at three points. He was fouled once again with 16 ticks left and calmly sunk both foul shots.
For the second straight night, Tufts locked down defensively when it mattered the most as the Jumbos knocked off host and No. 8-ranked New York University 65-62. Tufts (21-7) led by as many as seven in the first half, and extended it to as many as 11 early in the second half. With the Jumbos still leading by 10 with 8:11 to play, the NYU rally commenced. The Violets (21-6) went on a 13-2 run over the next four minutes, capped by a three-pointer from Spencer Freedman with 3:25 left to give NYU the lead at 61-60. That would be the final field goal that NYU would make the rest of the game. After a Tufts timeout, Khai Champion drilled a three-pointer to put the Jumbos back on top for good as Tufts held the hosts to just one point over the final 3:21. Freedman had a chance to give NYU the lead but his layup was blocked by sophomore Joshua Bernstein and the rebound was grabbed by Champion. After two fouls to put Tufts in the bonus, senior Jay Dieterle drilled both ends of a one-and-one to make the score 65-62. After two timeouts by the Violets, the ball was inbounded at the top of the key but NYU was unable to get a shot off as the Jumbos held on the for the victory.
Trinity (Conn.) advanced to the Sweet 16 out of the NESCAC as well, as the 28-1 Bantams overcame 33 points from Vinny DeAngelo in beating Swarthmore 83-74. Henry Vetter and Ben Callahan-Gold scored 17 apiece to lead Trinity, which will host in the Sweet 16. Swarthmore had led 69-62 before Trinity scored the next 13 points to take a 75-69 lead with 3:31 to play. DeAngelo got the Garnet within three on the team's next possession, but Trinity scored eight of the final 10 points to pull away.
Rowan advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second time in two seasons as Marcellus Ross scored 31 points to lead the Profs (21-7) to an 89-85 win at Catholic. Ross was 6-for-13 from beyond the arc as he scored 30 or more for the fourth time on the season. The Profs led by as many as 14, 47-33, early in the second half. Catholic (24-5) cut the deficit to 60-58 at the midway point of the half but free throws from Booty Butler and a three by Ross, gave Rowan a 65-58 lead. The Cardinals' Jesse Hafemeister was held to 15 points, including 6-for-17 shooting and 1-for-6 from three-point range.
Case Western Reserve graduate student guard Anthony Mazzeo scored 30 points to set the program record for points in a season and junior guard Sam Trunley added 29 off the bench as the sixth-ranked Spartans pulled away from 22nd-ranked Hope in the second half for a 97-79 win. Case advances to the Sweet 16 for just the second time in program history. Hope tied the game early in the second half, but the period ultimately belonged to Mazzeo and Trunley, who combined for 43 of the team's 57 points in the frame. After the Flying Dutchmen tied the score, CWRU went on a 7-0 run and never relinquished the lead for the rest of the game. Leading 54-50 with 14:23 to play, the Spartans proceeded to go on a 27-9 run with all but two of the points during the stretch scored by either Mazzeo or Trunley and maintained a double-figure lead for the rest of the game.
Washington U. joined Case in the Sweet 16 from the UAA, and needed overtime for the second consecutive night as the Bears edged Illinois College 68-67. Yogi Oliff hit two free throws with 1.8 seconds left to give the Bears the lead for the final time, and Wash U intercepted Illinois College's three-quarters court pass in the closing seconds to prevent a repeat of the Blueboys' first-round heroics.
Randolph-Macon was hitting on all cylinders to open the second half against St. Joseph (Conn.), going on a 16-6 run in the first six minutes to push the lead out to 20 after Theo Antinori's third three of the night. USJ's defense locked down the RMC offense over the course of five minutes to cut the lead down from 18 to eight with 4:25 to go. The Blue Jays then cut it to six at 68-62 on the first possession after the under-four media timeout. The Yellow Jackets capitalized on free throws down the stretch and got key stops on defense that led to an eventual 11-point win to send RMC to the third round. Keishawn Pulley Jr. knocked down four threes for 23 points to couple with seven assists.
Ryan Clements scored a game-high 13 points, adding five rebounds and five assists, and Shane Fernald added 12 points (6-6 FGs) off the bench, to lead top-ranked Hampden-Sydney to a 72-51 home win vs. Farmingdale State. Senior Davidson Hubbard finished with 10 points and six rebounds for the Tigers, who took control with 15 unanswered points while closing the first half on a 40-9 run to lead 49-20 at halftime on their way to improving to 28-2 overall. The Rams complete their season with a final record of 27-3 and were led by Nick Hurowitz with a game-high 13 points, adding nine rebounds. And Guilford makes it three ODAC teams in the second weekend, as the Quakers advanced in large part by limiting Penn State-Harrisburg's Donyae Baylor-Carroll to 16 points on 5-for-17 shooting, 1-for-9 from three-point range.
Two MIAA teams remain in the field as well, as Calvin knocked John Carroll out of the tournament behind 20 points from Jalen Overway and 20 more from Marcus Bult. It's the second trip to the Sweet 16 in three years for Calvin, which limited Luke Frazier to 14 points and 3-for-17 shooting from the floor. JCU was just 4-for-19 from beyond the arc on its home floor. Trine survived a late run from Coe as the Kohawks took a 20-point first half deficit and cut it all the down to zero, tying it at 60 with 7:26 left and even taking the lead moments later, but Trine held on to advance.
Whitworth had two chances at a game-winning three-pointer in the final eight seconds, but neither went down as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps held on to win 69-67 at Cal Lutheran. Diego Jaques had a clean look at a three-pointer from the top of the key with eight seconds left. It hit the front of the rim and Garret Long was able to direct the ball to Jake Holtz, whose well-guarded three-point attempt was no good as time expired. The game may have been decided at the free throw line, where Whitworth made only seven of its 17 attempts (41.2%) after making 72% for most of the season. Meanwhile CMS was 14-for-18 (77.8%) at the charity stripe. Josh Angle scored a team-high 21 points.