BOSTON, Mass. — The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team shot a season-best 52.6 percent from the field Saturday afternoon to take a 78-59 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) win at Wheelock College.
The Mountaineers continue their hot play in conference action, moving to 6-0 against the NECC and 12-3 overall on the season. Wheelock falls to 3-11 overall and 0-5 in league play.
Southern Vermont's bench played extremely well with four reserves hitting double digits in points while no starters matched the feat. Junior DeShawn Hamlet (Hartford, Connecticut) tallied a game-best 20 points to go with five rebounds and a pair of steals, and classmateCasey Hall (Albany, New York) followed with 12 points and five rebounds. Junior Jeff James(Bowie, Maryland) and sophomore Davante Jordan (Great Mills, Maryland) each scored 10 points with James registering a team-best four assists.
WC sophomore Nicholas Fenton (East Hartford, Connecticut) led the team with 19 points and dished out a game-best five assists while classmate Matthew Eason (East Hartford, Connecticut) was on his heels with 17 points; the two Wildcats went 3-5 and 5-6, respectively, from beyond the arc. Fellow sophomore Anthony Williams (White Plains, New York) chipped in with eight points and six rebounds in the effort.
The Mountaineers went 30-57 from the field while holding Wheelock to a 16-54 clip (29.6 percent). SVC used its 20-17 turnover advantage to outscore WC 24-14 in points off takeaways while the Mountaineers owned a dominant 40-12 edge on points in the paint. The Wildcats' persistence to shoot from deep led to a 9-24 total on three-point attempts (37.5 percent), and they went a perfect 18-18 from the charity stripe.
Wheelock had some early success with Eason nailing a pair of three-pointers while his team took a quick 8-0 lead. A Williams layup put WC ahead 10-2, and the Wildcats hit their next three baskets from beyond the arc to go up by 10 (19-9). But the Mountaineers then stormed back into the game with an 11-0 run, sparked by a three from sophomore Brandon Casella (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), to take their first lead of the day.
Eason drilled another basket from downtown on the other end of the floor to put WC back ahead, but SVC then scored 10 unanswered points to go on top 30-22 with 4:49 left in the first. Three-pointers continued to highlight the period as the teams went back-and-forth until Hamlet's interior game helped pump up Southern Vermont's lead; he scored the final six SVC points of the half, all coming off layups, to send his team to the break with a 44-31 lead.
Fenton started the second half with his third basket from outside the perimeter, just to see Southern Vermont come back with three points of its own to keep the advantage in double digits. After a Fenton jumper at the 17:17 mark, SVC scored the next six points for a comfortable 53-36 lead. A 9-0 Mountaineer run with under 10 minutes left put Southern Vermont up 68-45, and the visitors never looked back while collecting their fifth straight win.
Southern Vermont is back at home on Tuesday for its next game, hosting Becker College for a big NECC matchup at 6 p.m. The Wildcats are on the road Thursday for their next contest, traveling to Mitchell College for a 6 p.m. conference tilt.