The Brewers split the weekend games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence and are now 11-8 overall and 3-6 in the Liberty League. St. Lawrence, which was upset by RPI on Friday night, improves to 9-10 overall, but an impressive 7-2 in league play, one game behind Hamilton.
The Brewers will play the remaining five games of the 2005-06 season at the Athletic & Fitness Center starting with Hamilton College on Feb. 10 at 8:00 pm.VC is currently in 6th place in the Liberty League, two wins behind Union (5-5) and three wins behind RPI (6-9).
The Brewers and Saints were only tied once, at 2-2, and from that point, the Saints controlled the game, never allowing VC to get closer than three points – 28-25 with 6:30 to play – in the first half in building a 39-31 intermission lead.Behind Shaver's 27 points, a 20 point, 11 rebound effort by Bela Vonnak and 18 points from Jimmy White (10 of 13 from the line), St. Lawrence pushed its lead to 12 points, 50-38 with 15:18 to play in the second half.
The Brewers mounted a serious comeback, however, shaving the lead down to 55-53 with 9:50 to play on the strength of offense from sophomore Lawrence Avitabile (Southington, CT/Southington), junior Rob Dauster (North Haven, CT/North Haven) and sophomore Danny Forcella (Falmouth, ME/Falmouth).
St. Lawrence responded with a 10-2 run over the next two minutes, increasing the margin to 65-55 with 7:33 to play, with the trio of White, Vonnak and Shaver controlling the action. From that point, the Saints held any VC comeback attempts at bay, increasing the lead to 74-58 with 3:38 to play.
Vassar got 19 points and 6 rebounds from Avitabile, 14 points and 4 rebounds from junior center William Kieffer (Chappaqua, NY/Horace Greely) and 12 points, 5 assists and no turnovers from Forcella.
St. Lawrence held a 44-32 edge in rebounding, connecting on 23 second chance points, 16 which came in the second half.
VASSARM vs ST LAWRENCE 2/4/06 4 at slu At slu ST LAWRENCE 81, VASSARM 70 VASSARM Lawrence Avitabile 8-12 2-5 19; William Kieffer 5-10 4-4 14; Daniel Forcella 4-7 2-3 12; Rob Dauster 2-3 1-1 6; Will Byrne 2-5 0-0 5; Brian Butterworth 2-7 0-0 5; Kyle Magnus 1-3 2-5 4; Evan Hannay 0-3 3-4 3; Lenny Holt 1-4 0-0 2; Joe Davis 0-1 0-0 0; Joe Ward 0-1 0-0 0; Tom Driscoll 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-57 14-22 70. ST LAWRENCE Tyler Shaver 11-15 0-2 27; Bela Vonnak 8-14 4-6 20; Jimmy White 4-11 10-13 18; Pat Delmonico 2-4 0-0 6; Tom Wopperer 1-5 0-0 3; Matt Blue 1-2 0-0 3; Sebastian Kurtz 1-1 0-0 2; Richard Williams 0-0 2-4 2; Shane Connolly 0-0 0-1 0; Josh Barrett 0-0 0-0 0; Ben Augliano 0-0 0-0 0; Mike Finn 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-54 16-26 81. VASSARM....................... 31 39 - 70 ST LAWRENCE................... 39 42 - 81 3-point goals-VASSARM 6-10 (Daniel Forcella 2-3; Brian Butterworth 1-1; Rob Dauster 1-2; Lawrence Avitabile 1-1; Will Byrne 1-2; William Kieffer 0-1), ST LAWRENCE 9-11 (Tyler Shaver 5-7; Pat Delmonico 2-2; Matt Blue 1-1; Tom Wopperer 1-1). Fouled out--VASSARM-Lawrence Avitabile, ST LAWRENCE-Richard Williams. Rebounds-VASSARM 32 (Lawrence Avitabile 6), ST LAWRENCE 44 (Bela Vonnak 11). Assists-VASSARM 10 (Daniel Forcella 5), ST LAWRENCE 16 (Jimmy White 6). Total fouls-VASSARM 17, ST LAWRENCE 17.