Courtesy Williams Sports Information

Box Score

CANTON, N.Y. - Brockport State had five players score in double figures Friday night as it eliminated the Williams College men's basketball team from the NCAA Tournament with a 74-66 first round decision at St. Lawrence University.

Brandon Williams led the Golden Eagles (24-5) with 16 points, scoring eight in each half. Junior Chris Rose led the Ephs with 17 points. Williams, the 2007 NESCAC champions, finished its season at 16-12.

"We had a couple of messages for them after the game," Ephs head coach David Paulsen said. "The first was that this should hurt, because it's the end of two senior's careers tonight. But the bigger message was that it has been a great ride, and tonight should be a celebration of a great run that, frankly, was unexpected."

Williams led 36-31 at the half and 43-37 early in the second stanza, but a 17-3 Brockport State run over a five-minute period left the Golden Eagles up 54-46 and ultimately proved to be the difference in the contest.

There were several factors in the Brockport State comeback. After being out-rebounded by the Ephs in the first half, Brockport won the war on the glass over the final 20 minutes by a 2 to 1 ratio: 32 to 16.

Secondly, the Ephs had trouble stopping Brockport's junior point guard, Sherod Harris, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half. And when they did, Williams or Golden Eagle freshman Cantrel Parrish cleaned up under the glass.

"Brockport State is very, very athletic," Paulsen said. "It was a double-edged sword for us trying to defend them. We couldn't guard Brandon Williams man-to-man and when we switched to a zone, we couldn't stop Sherod Harris. It's a real tribute to Brockport State, they played very well."

Brockport State also did a nice job defending the Williams shooters, holding the Ephs to 34.8 percent shooting from the floor (23 of 66) in the game, and only 30.6 percent (11 of 36) in the second half. That defense extended out to the three-point line, where the Ephs had been gold in recent weeks. Friday night, the Ephs were 3 of 12 beyond the arc in the second half, and 8 of 25 (32 percent) in the game.

The Golden Eagles tied the game at 43 with 14:52 remaining when Mychal Wilkes went coast-to-coast with a turnover and turned it into an easy layup. Moments later, Wilkes, who scored nine of his 14 points in the second half, popped a three-pointer for a 46-43 edge. Rose answered for the Ephs with a three of his own with 12:38 remaining that tied the game at 46, but Brockport answered with eight consecutive points, including a three-pointer from the top of the key from Harris and a trey off the right wing by Dave Maldonado.

Trailing by 10 late, the Ephs did not lay down. A three from Chris Shalvoy from the top of the key with 6:17 left made it a four-point game. Rose got an easy lay-in in transition with 4:38 to go to once again cut the deficit to four, but Harris followed with another three-pointer.

The Ephs cut it to five with 3:14 to go on first-year Joe Geoghegan's putback, but it would be as close as Williams would get. Brockport went 7 of 12 from the foul line in the closing seconds to seal the outcome.

"We didn't perform as well as we did last weekend," Paulsen said. "When we hit the panic button late, we kind of reverted back to relying on one or two guys to take the majority of our shots."

Shalvoy finished with 12 points and two assists for the Ephs. First-year Blake Schultz scored 15 points and had six rebounds and four steals. Geoghegan finished with seven points and nine rebounds. In his final game, Brian Nelson had six points on two three-pointers.

For Brockport, Williams had 16 points and seven boards and Parrish 13 points and nine rebounds. Aaron Poles came off the bench to score 10 points.

Williams trailed by as much as four points early in the half, but took the lead for good when junior point guard Chris Shaloy placed in a lay-up wth 7:20 remaining for a 20-18 lead.

A couple of minutes later, Shalvoy found Blake Schultz on a nice backdoor cut for a layup and a 24-20 lead. Following a Matt Weisbrot defensive rebound, Rose drained a three-pointer off the right wing for a 27-20 lead.

The Ephs largest lead of the half came when senior Brian Nelson drained a trey from the left corner off a pass from Rose with 2:35 left to make it 36-26.

Williams shot 40 percent (12 of 30) from the floor and 38 percent (5 of 13) from beyond the three-point arc. The Ephs did out-rebound the Golden Eagles, 17-13, but Brockport was a solid 48 percent shooting (12 of 25) from the floor.