In the last regular season home game of their careers, senior tri-captains Andrew Newton, Casey Gibbons and Will Kuntz led a fired up Eph squad to a huge conference win. Gibbons and Newton set the tone early, and Kuntz came off the bench to contribute a dominating effort inside, scoring 10 points and pulling down 9 boards.
"We said last night that we were going to find out today what we were made of," Williams Head Coach Dave Paulsen said. "This was a big answer to that question. It was an all-around great team effort. I liked our body language from the very start. We looked like we were just going to go after them and compete. And for the first time in a while, the other team had to adjust to us."
Succeeding in controlling Trinity's inside attack, Williams managed to climb to a modest 5-point lead midway through the first half. Sophomore Matt Weisbrot finished a nice feed with 9:34 remaining to put the Ephs up 21-14 and the Bantams took a time out to regroup.
After the Bantams whittled the Eph lead to three points with five minutes to go in the half, Williams responded with a 12-4 run over the next three minutes of play. Sophomore Chris Shalvoy knocked down two huge threes over the stretch and a pair of free throws by rookie Kevin Snyder gave the Ephs their biggest lead of the day, a 40-29 advantage with just over two minutes remaining in the half.
Snyder then added the exclamation point, banking in a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired on Williams' final possession of the first half. The clutch bucket gave the Ephs momentum and a 43-32 lead heading into the break.
Trinity would get no closer than nine the rest of the way. The Bantams hung around in the opening minutes of the second half, but the Ephs stayed in control. Sophomore Chris Rose connected on a 3-pointer from the corner with just over two minutes remaining to extend the lead to 20 points and spark some celebration in Chandler Gymnasium.
Williams shot 50 percent from the floor and turned the ball over just seven times. Shalvoy and Rose scored14 points a piece in leading the balanced Eph attack. Junior Brian Nelson grabbed a number of key rebounds and seemed to come up with every loose ball on the afternoon. He finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds. Weisbrot was a force inside off the bench, pulling down 5 rebounds and scoring 4 points.
But the keys to the win came on the defensive end for the Ephs. Williams dominated Trinity on the boards, 36-27, and appeared to outhustle the Bantams all afternoon. Rose and Weisbrot spearheaded a fantastic effort on Bantam standout forward Tyler Rhoten, who was held to a quiet 15 points and 6 rebounds. Shutdown on the inside by the Ephs, the Bantams struggled to find an attack from the outside. They shot just 35 percent from the floor and only 17 percent from behind the arc. Trinity scored just 20 points in the second half.
"I thought we did a great job executing our game plan," Paulsen said. "We doubled on Rhoten when he got the ball inside like we wanted to and that was a key defensively. We also wanted to stop their interior game and their dribble penetration as well. Holding them to just 35 percent shooting was huge for us. And it's not too often that we outrebound a top-25 team."
Williams wraps up its regular season schedule with a pair of NESCAC games on the road next weekend. The Ephs will face Colby on Friday at 7 p.m. and Bowdoin on Saturday at 3 p.m.