The men’s basketball team, led by senior captain and NESCAC player of the week Tim Holland ’05, opened up its season with a 92-76 win over Wentworth Institute on Nov. 19 in the Wesleyan Tip-Off Tournament. More recently it claimed its second victory of the season over Eastern Connecticut 63-60 with Doug Rubenstein ’07 nailing the game winning three-pointer. Holland scored 15 points for the Cards while Rob Kelly ’06 led all scorers with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
“I knew the shot clock was running down, and we had to get a shot up,” Rubenstein said of his three-pointer, which came off a pass from Jarred Ashe ’07 with less than a minute remaining. “I was just lucky to have a good look at the hoop.”
In the team’s first victory, the one-two offensive punch of Holland and Ashe proved to be too much for Wentworth, as the two combined for 81 points over the season-opening tournament. Holland and Ashe also provided key leadership on the court early on. Holland, who led all scorers with a career high 32 points, was named to the All-Tournament team along with Ashe, the starting point guard.
“We’ve got a much different team this year. With the graduation of our top two scorers from last year, we all have increased pressure to score. But Tim was brilliant over the [first] weekend, and the offense is built around him. We all are working to get him the ball,” Ashe said. “It is nice for us to get the honor of getting named to the All-Tournament team, but in the end we do whatever it takes to win.”
Last year, as the third option in the offense, Holland showed flashes of brilliance on the offensive end, and now he has demonstrated that he can perform on the center stage.
“Not too much about Tim has changed. He has always had the ability to score,” said center Rob Kelly ’06. “I’m not surprised at what he is doing for this team.”
Kelly, who has also taken a step up on the offensive end this season, has been a force to be reckoned with down low. He has averaged just less than 16 points, 10 rebounds and over two blocks per game so far this year. Kelly led the team with 12 points and 16 rebounds in the team’s loss to Williams this past Tuesday. Despite the loss, Kelly noted the team’s defensive intensity, especially in the first half where the team trailed by just two to Williams, who reached the NCAA Division III finals last year.
“I’m not surprised that we were able to stay close with them,” Kelly said. “This year, the team is built on the defensive end of the floor.”
The loss to Williams was sandwiched in between losses to Western Connecticut and Western New England College, but the team isn’t worried about its ability to win.
“We have a young team, and we didn’t do as well on the offensive end,” Kelly said of the Williams game. “On defense, we had a lot of intensity and we were able to get to loose balls, contest every shot, and do the little stuff.”
“We were able to keep the score close by picking up our intensity,” Ashe added. “We made some defensive plays and didn’t give them good looks at the basket, but we struggled on the offensive end. We just couldn’t make our shots. Holding Williams to 59 points, however, is pretty good. We’ll be fine if we are holding teams to 59 points, because I’m not worried in terms of our scoring ability.”
One player who has been out with injury and should provide a boost to the team upon his return is Sean Collins ’08, a six-foot six-inch forward who should help ease the burden down low from starters Kelly and Nick Pelletier ’08 with his excellent rebounding ability. With the squad often undersized down low, the Cards will count on the low post presence of all three in competition.
“While we have done well on our intensity, we have to pick it up one more level. We can’t have our intensity at eighty percent. We have to give one hundred percent at all times,” said Ashe.
The squad travels to New York Friday to take part in the Skidmore Invitational Tournament and to Emmanuel College on Tuesday.
“At this point in the season, even though we are under .500, we feel confident,” Rubenstein said. “We are staying in games with experienced teams, and late in the season, once we are fully gelled, we will pull out those close ones that we haven’t one thus far.”
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