After an outstanding season that saw the men’s basketball team tie for sixth in the final NESCAC standings, but lose key tiebreakers, the team was awarded the eighth seed in the NESCAC tournament. Although it was the Cardinals’ first postseason berth since 2004-05, being the eighth seed meant that they had to travel to play top-seeded Williams, which had only lost once and was ranked second in the country. The outlook was grim for the Cardinals, but even though the Ephs had already defeated them twice this season, the Cardinals had hung tough in both games, a fact that gave Wes hope going into the game this past Saturday.
From the outset, it looked as though the Cards were right to be optimistic. The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with the score tied six times and Wesleyan leading by as many as five. Williams’ largest lead was just four, which was the deficit for the Cardinals at halftime. In the first half, each team was pretty even, but Williams outshot Wesleyan 46 percent to 39 percent and went to the foul line 14 times to the Cards’ eight.
The Cardinals stormed out of the locker room with a 5-0 run in the first minute of the second half to take a 36-35 lead. However, that was when Williams’ notable home-court and size advantages (the Ephs have 11 players 6’4” or taller compared to just six for the Cardinals) took their toll. The Ephs rolled off a 25-4 run that put them ahead 60-40 with under 11 minutes to go, scoring from everywhere on the floor: the three-point line, in the paint, from mid-range, and on the free throw line. After that, the Cardinals were unable to get any closer than 10 with two and a half minutes left after a 16-5 run, but by then it was too little, too late. Williams led by as many as 21 and eventually won by a 77-62 score.
The Cardinals were simply unable to stop the Ephs on defense in the second half, allowing Williams to shoot an astronomical 59 percent from the field while shooting a decent 41 percent themselves. Again, the foul disparity made a huge difference, with Williams going to the line eight more times than Wesleyan in the second half and more than twice as many times over the course of the game. Thus, even though Wesleyan made all 13 of its foul shots, the Ephs still outscored them from the line by sinking 22 of their 27 attempts. Williams even shot 50 percent from the three-point line, an unheard-of number that put the Cardinals’ 37 percent to shame. The Ephs used their size to their advantage, outrebounding Wes 32-24. Wes only allowed three Ephs to get into double figures, but one of them, guard James Wang, made five three-pointers and dropped 30 points.
Shasha Brown ’13 was, again, the Cardinals’ high point man for the 15th time in 25 games. He played 36 minutes out of a possible 40, scored 21 points, added six assists, and raised his team-high scoring average to 17.8 for the season. Fellow freshmen Derick Beresford and Mike Callaghan were the only other Cardinals in double figures, with 13 and 11 points, respectively. The 15-point margin was Williams’ second-lowest in NESCAC play this season, as the Ephs beat Conn. College by only 12 (69-57) in New London on Jan. 23. (Williams also eked out a three-point win over Amherst in a non-conference game.)
The loss ended the Cardinals’ season at 11-14 (3-6 NESCAC), but the three conference wins and 11 overall wins are the most of each since 2004-05. Brown averaged nearly four assists per game to go along with his 17.8 scoring average, and Jason Mendell ’12 was the only other Cardinal to average double figures in scoring, with 10.5. Mendell led the team in rebounding, with 5.4 per game, and shot an outstanding 38 percent from three-point range on the year. Despite the loss of invaluable leaders Jeremy Kaminer ’10 and Kevin Scura G’09, the future is bright for the Cardinals. Kaminer is the only starter not returning, and along with Brown, five other freshmen averaged at least 10 minutes a game. That experience will prove invaluable as their careers progress, and it all points to a brighter future for Cardinal basketball.
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