CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team avenged an early-season loss to Lesley University by defeating the hosting Lynx 78-67 Saturday night in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols.
The Mountaineers went into the halftime intermission with a 34-29 lead, but LU kept it close and eventually tied the game during the second half. Southern Vermont was too much for the hosts, however, as the visitors pulled away with a stellar showing from the free throw line in the final few minutes.
SVC is now 9-9 overall and 7-2 in NECC play— taking a two-game lead over Lesley for second place in the league standings with the team's seventh-straight win.
The Southern Vermont victory helps the Mountaineers split the yearly series with LU after the Lynx ended SVC's 19-game regular season home winning streak against Conference opponents in early December. Southern Vermont is back at it on Tuesday, hosting Newbury College for a 7 p.m. league matchup.
Mountaineer senior Nate Goldsmith (Capitol Heights, Md.) tallied team-bests of 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists while classmate Rayshawn Taylor (Silver Spring, Md.) had 13 points and six boards. Junior Mike Pierre (Melrose, N.Y.) notched 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks as sophomore Kyle Depollar (Rockville, Md.) put down a season-best 11 points in 15 minutes off the bench.
Southern Vermont was 24-for-57 (42.1 percent) from field goal range while Lesley hit on 24 of its 64 (37.5 percent) attempts from the floor. SVC snagged a 44-41 advantage in rebounds while the Mountaineers outscored the Lynx 22-9 in points off turnovers.
After SVC junior Claude Payne (South Plainfield, N.J.) got a layup to go on the first possession of the game, Lesley came back with six unanswered to grab the lead. The Lynx used their third triple of the game at the 13:58 mark to keep the upper hand— going on top 16-11. SVC inched closer, and a Pierre layup with just over seven minutes to go made it only a one-point game. LU would bump the separation back to seven, however, as another three-pointer helped give the hosts a little breathing room.
The Mountaineers had a strong last five minutes of the half— registering eight straight to take their first lead since the opening bucket; four SVC players scored in that stretch including Depollar who knocked down a trey. Lesley regained the advantage momentarily before Mountaineer sophomore Josh Borders (Miami, Fla.) hit a game-tying three, and Goldsmith added a layup with 56 seconds on the clock for a two-point Southern Vermont edge. SVC utilized a timeout with four ticks left to go— that stoppage allowing Goldsmith to feed Pierre on the outside for a last-second triple which made it a 34-29 visitors' advantage going into the locker room.
Goldsmith racked up seven points in the first 1:15 of the second half, using a three to put the Mountaineers up 41-31. After Pierre assisted a Payne jumper to maintain the solid Southern Vermont upper hand, the Lynx erased the deficit with nine unanswered points to tie it at 46-46 just under the 14-minute mark. Depollar connected on another three, but LU responded with one at the other end as the back-and-forth continued.
The visitors moved it back to a two-possession game over the next few minutes before Taylor went 2-for-2 from the charity stripe for a 57-51 SVC advantage. The hosts would trim it back to four, but the Mountaineers then scored seven in-a-row with the aid of a Taylor triple to push the difference up to double digits. LU would notch seven of the next eight— cutting it to a 67-63 game with 2:52 left to go.
The rest would be all Southern Vermont, however, as Taylor drilled a three before his team went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in 23 seconds of clock time. The Mountaineers conceded a pair of meaningless layups in the last 43 seconds while hitting another two freebies for the comfortable win.
– #LetsGoSVC –