Jan. 14: The St. Lawrence Men’s Basketball team upset visiting Union 61-60 at the buzzer on a jump hook from Richard Williams to win their second straight league contest. With the win, the Saints advance to 4-7 overall, and 2-0 in the Liberty League. Union falls to 9-5 overall, 2-1 in league.
At the beginning of the game, the Saints jumped out to a 8-2 lead thanks to 6 points from Freshman Bela Vonnak. Union clawed back into the game and took the lead with just under three minutes to play in the first half. SLU was able to keep it close and a Williams’ layup just before the half kept them behind by only 4 going into the locker room.
At the end of the first 20 minutes, the score was 28-24 Union, in spite of 8 points and 6 rebounds from Vonnak.
In the second half, the Saints kept it close and pulled within 3 points on a long three pointer from Matt Blue with 10 minutes left. They were then able to pull within one thanks to a reverse lay up from Tyler Shaver. Union’s Brian Scordato promptly hit a three to increase the Dutchman lead to 4.
SLU continued to fight and took the lead with 6:21 left on a three pointer from Pat Delmonico. Scordato then hit another 3 to retake the lead and Union would keep it until the final second.
Vonnak hit two clutch free throws with just 1:15 left to pull the Saints within 5. SLU then pressured the in bounds pass and stole it, which led to a Tom Wopperer lay up and foul. He added a free throw to pull St. Lawrence within 2 with just one minute left.
Union then made a free throw, but Vonnak answered back with two more of his own. Union had a one point lead, the ball, and 42 seconds on the clock. They milked the clock and missed a shot with 7.8 seconds left. The rebound was a jump ball, and the possession arrow gave it back to Union. On the in bounds pass, the ball was deflected and another jump ball was called, this time SLU won the arrow with 4.6 seconds left and the whole floor to go.
Wopperer took it out for the Saints and his pass was deflected out of bounds by a Union defender. The Saints were given the ball on the sidelines with 3.6 seconds remaining. Wopperer then passed it in to midcourt where Ben Augliano was waiting. Augliano riffled it in the middle of the paint to Williams whose jump hook just beat the buzzer to give the Saints the 61-60 victory at Burkman Gymnasium.
On the day, four Saints scored double digits. Shaver had a team high 14 points and added 3 assists. Vonnak recorded 12 points, 8 boards, and 2 blocks. Wopperer and Williams each had 10 points.
For Union, Scordato led with 22 points and a team high 6 rebounds. Chris Murphy had 9 points and 4 assists. Jim Rahill had 8 points and 4 steals.
The Saints will look to keep their streak alive this Tuesday against Potsdam as they face the Bears at 7:00pm at home.