Kieffer, who registered his fourth double-double of the season, led the Brewers to the championship for the second consecutive year. He was named the tournament MVP following this outing and a 13 point, 13 rebound game against Bard in the opener. Kieffer's outing was superb: 10-of-15 from the floor, 4-of-7 from the line, 13 rebounds (eight defensively) and a game-high five assists. In the victory, Vassar also received a career-high scoring game from sophomore Tyson Brazell (Salt Lake City, UT/Waterford School), who scored 16 points on the evening and made several key free throws during the game. Brazell, who scored a then-career high 13 points against Bard, was named to the All-Tournament Team.
The Brewers got two of the games biggest free throws, however, from senior Will Byrne (Chelmsford, MA/Concord Academy) with 9 seconds to play and VC clinging to a 76-74 lead. Byrne's free throws increased the lead to 78-74 and secured the victory.
Two other Brewer players were in double figures, sophomore forward Lawrence Avitabile (Southington, CT/Southington) with 13 points and 7 rebounds and sophomore guard Danny Forcella (Falmouth, ME/Falmouth) with 10 points. Forcella, who had 8 points against Bard, was named to the All-Tournament Team.
The Brewers (4-1) hit the boards hard against New Paltz, outrebounding the Hawks (3-2) on the evening, 42-33.
Vassar held a 35-33 lead at halftime, with Kieffer scoring 12 of his points in the first 20 minutes. The host Hawks had built a 22-15 lead at the 10 minute mark, only to see the Brewers tie the game at 22-22 on a Kieffer layup. Four straight points by Brazell (layup, two free throws) pushed VC into the lead at 33-30, with a Kieffer layup as time winding down providing VC with a 35-33 intermission lead.
At the start of the second half, the Brewers pushed the lead to 45-40 on a layup by junior Tom Driscoll (West Warwick, RI/West Warwick) at the 16:35 mark and took a 47-41 lead on a layup by Avitabile at 14:59.
At the 11:57 mark, New Paltz took its first second half lead, 50-49, on a three-point play by Steven Lewis (13 points) and the Hawks extended that margin to 59-51 at 8:58 on a 3-point bucket by Bobby Kaible (9 points).
The Brewers were in catch-up mode from that point on, trading buckets with New Paltz over the next five minutes. A 3-pointer by Forcella with 3:57 to play gave VC a 68-67 lead that went to 70-67 on two free throws by Brazell with 2:58 to play. A pair of free throws by Kieffer with 1:11 remaining helped Vassar extend its lead to 72-69, but New Paltz was able to tied the game at 72-72 on a 3-pointer by Jimmy Sugrue, his only field goal of the game, with 42 seconds to play.
The Brewers were able to manage the ball and the clock with the game knotted at 72-72. A free throw by Brazell, layup by Driscoll and a second free throw by Brazell, all in the span of a few seconds, pushed Vassar's lead to 76-72 with 11 seconds to play, a margin that would stand over the final 11 seconds of the game.
To reach its final tally of 79 points, Vassar got two big late free throws from senior Will Byrne to make the score 78-74 with 9 seconds remaining and Avitabile with 6 seconds to play. Byrne's two clutch free throws helped secure the win and he finished with 9 points on the night. Driscoll, in a big 10-minute effort, scored 5 points and had a pair of rebounds.
New Paltz received an 18-point effort from John Hauser, with 10 of those points coming from the free throw line.
Vassar next plays this Sunday, December 4 with a 4:00 pm game on the road against SUNY Purchase.
VASSAR vs SUNY New Paltz 11/30/05 8:00 pm at Elting Gynasium At Elting Gynasium VASSAR 79, SUNY NEW PALTZ 74 VASSAR (4-1) William Kieffer 10-15 4-7 24; Tyson Brazell 4-8 6-7 16; Lawrence Avitabile 6-18 1-2 13; Daniel Forcella 4-7 0-0 10; Will Byrne 2-4 4-4 9; Tom Driscoll 2-3 1-2 5; Joe Davis 1-6 0-1 2; Rob Dauster 0-0 0-0 0; Brian Butterworth 0-3 0-0 0; Lenny Holt 0-2 0-0 0; Kyle Magnus 0-0 0-0 0; Evan Hannay 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-67 16-23 79. SUNY NEW PALTZ (3-2) HAUSER, John 3-8 10-12 18; LEWIS, Steven 6-8 1-2 13; IRWIN, Matt 4-6 3-4 12; CRICHLOW, Keith 4-13 2-2 11; KAIBLE, Bobby 3-6 0-0 9; CARTER, John 2-6 0-1 5; RICHARDS, Jerome 1-1 1-2 3; SUGRUE, Jimmy 1-3 0-0 3; GITTENS, Terrence 0-0 0-0 0; HAUSER, Matt 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-52 17-23 74. VASSAR........................ 35 44 - 79 SUNY New Paltz................ 33 41 - 74 3-point goals-VASSAR 5-18 (Daniel Forcella 2-4; Tyson Brazell 2-4; Will Byrne 1-3; Brian Butterworth 0-3; Tom Driscoll 0-1; Lawrence Avitabile 0-2; William Kieffer 0-1), SUNY New Paltz 9-21 (KAIBLE, Bobby 3-4; HAUSER, John 2-4; CRICHLOW, Keith 1-5; SUGRUE, Jimmy 1-1; CARTER, John 1-5; IRWIN, Matt 1-2). Fouled out--VASSAR-None, SUNY New Paltz-None. Rebounds-VASSAR 42 (William Kieffer 13), SUNY New Paltz 33 (LEWIS, Steven 8). Assists-VASSAR 11 (William Kieffer 5), SUNY New Paltz 17 (IRWIN, Matt 4; CRICHLOW, Keith