Hamilton’s head coach Tom Murphy became just the fourth Division III men’s coach to win 600 games in a career with the 24-point victory. Murphy will have a chance to extend his win total on Feb. 27 and 28 when the Continentals (9-5 conference, 17-7 overall) host the conference tournament as its No. 1 seed.
All four teams in the tournament finished the season with 9-5 conference records, but Hamilton won the tiebreaker because it swept Union while the other three schools split with Union. The Continentals will play Clarkson (9-5, 15-10) again in one first round matchup, while St. Lawrence and RPI will meet in the other semifinal.
Greg Leone made four of his eight 3-point attempts and finished with 26 points. Tim Welchons added 22 points and five assists. Tsakane Ngobeni chipped in nine points and 11 rebounds. C.J. Cantil handed out a game-high six assists for Hamilton, which shot 58% from the field and held a 43-24 advantage in rebounding.
The Continentals led 23-19 with 11:26 left in the first half before embarking on a 9-3 run that pushed the advantage to 32-22 with 8:21 remaining. The Golden Knights didn’t get closer than eight points the rest of the game. Hamilton held off Clarkson by making 16 of its 26 shots in the second half. The Continentals’ 97 points is a season high.