Hamilton (4-0 overall) plays the hosts in the tournament’s championship game on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 2 o’clock. Wesleyan defeated Mitchell College 86-75 in the other first round contest.
Welchons went 6-for-14 from the field, including 2-for-5 from three-point range. The Liberty League’s co-Guard of the Week made 3-of-4 free throw attempts. Nick Jones ’07 tossed in 15 points. Tsakane Ngobeni ’07 chipped in a season-high 14 points off the bench. Ngobeni grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and blocked two shots.
Phil Valenti ’06 was credited with six of the Continentals’ 19 steals. Valenti leads the league with 4.50 steals per game. Hamilton committed 23 turnovers, but forced 27. Endicott (2-3) turned the ball over 19 times in the first half alone while the Continentals built a 43-22 lead. Hamilton also shot 53.6 percent (15-28) in the first 20 minutes. The Gulls cut the deficit to ten points twice in the second half, but didn’t get any closer.
The Continentals shot 51.1 percent (24-47) from the field for the game. Hamilton grabbed 38 rebounds to Endicott’s 25. The Continentals are playing Wesleyan for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. Second-year head coach Tobin Anderson was a standout guard for the Cardinals in the mid-1990’s.