Unfortunately, over the course of the game, it became clear that one team, the defending national champion Ephs (now 28-1), was in superior shape and was thus, able to execute their run-and-gun offense to perfection after a slow start. After overcoming an early deficit, Williams would go on to control the game throughout en route to a 78-50 victory.
“We really wore them down,” junior Jaris Cole said. “They play a physical style of defense, but once our shots started falling it made it hard for them to come back.”
After Brockport stormed out to a quick 10-2 lead behind four points apiece from Brandon Mills and Bryan Boswell, the Ephs offense began to find its rhythm. Junior Jaris Cole hit a running jumper, senior Ben Coffin added a layup and a free throw for a three-point play, and Crotty narrowed the deficit to one with a bank shot from the free throw line.
“I think the key [after they took the early lead] was that Coach told us to stay the course even though things weren’t going well offensively,” Cole said.
The Golden Eagles hung around and extended their lead back to three at 16-13. But, from there, their legs gave out on them and the Eph offense caught fire. Over the remainder of the first half, the Ephs pounded out a 31-7 run, despite connecting on just 1-of-11 three-pointers over the first twenty minutes.
“They are by far the best offensive team in division three that I’ve seen in 16 years,” Brockport coach Nelson Whitmore said about the Ephs. “We did get some stops, but they got 21 offensive rebounds and that didn’t make things easy on us.”
The key to taking the Golden Eagles out of the game, as far as Williams head coach Dave Paulsen saw it, was stepping it up defensively.
“We’re thrilled to win and advance to the elite eight,” he said. “The best thing we did, at least after the first six or seven minutes, was we did a great job defensively keeping the ball out of the post. Our perimeter defense was tremendous as well. Even when we got a little sloppy offensively once we got the big lead, I was still thrilled with our defensive effort.”
The three senior tri-captains led the way for the Ephs in the scoring column. All three found double figures, led by Chuck Abba’s 17 points. Abba also hustled his way to nine rebounds. Michael Crotty scored 15 points and dished out six assists, leaving him just three short of 800 for his career. Ben Coffin had 11 points and hauled in a game-high 14 rebounds. His first rebound on the night gave him 786 in his Williams career, placing him atop the College’s all-time rebounding list.
“We feel good about where we are offensively and defensively,” Abba said. “We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we’d like, but our offensive rebounding was huge.”
The Ephs outrebounded Brockport 56-33 on the night, including a staggering 21 offensive rebounds for the hosts, eight alone for Coffin.
Brockport State (22-8) was led by Mills, who finished with 14 points, but he struggled to exert himself offensively when the Ephs went on their tear.
Brockport was appearing in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the third time in four years.
Up next for the Ephs is an elite eight date with Keene State. In the night’s earlier matchup, the Owls upset Rochester 82-79 to earn their spot in Saturday night’s contest.
Despite the margin of Friday’s victory, there are glaring areas for improvement for the Ephs if they hope to return to Salem for their second Final Four in as many years. Turnovers, for one, need to be controlled. Against Brockport, Williams turned the ball over an uncharacteristically high 15 times.
Those who remain in the hunt for tickets to Saturday’s 7pm tip at Chandler Gym are out of luck as the game is sold out.