For the seventh year in a row, the NESCAC men's basketball championship plaque is heading to Western Massachusetts.
Ever since the first conference tournament was held in 2001, the postseason has been ruled by a two-party system, with the Amherst Lord Jeffs and Williams Ephs taking home the title every year. This year, the Jeffs were heavily favored to continue that tradition, as they headed into this weekend's final four with home-court advantage, a national No. 2 ranking, and a 24-1 record on the season.
But after cruising by Colby in Saturday's semifinals, the Lord Jeffs fell 70-69 yesterday to Williams, the tournament's No. 3 seed, completing the Ephs' Cinderella run to an NCAA Tournament berth in dramatic fashion.
"It feels great," said junior quad-captain Chris Shalvoy, who led all scorers in the game with 23 points. "We're very fortunate to get the win. It's obviously our first win over Amherst [this season], so that's a great feeling."
In fact, not only was the stunning upset the Ephs' first win over Amherst in three meetings this season, but it was their first in three years. The last time the Ephs beat their hated rivals from Amherst was on March 19, 2004, when Williams beat Amherst in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament. This team, a much younger one than the 2003-04 squad that reached the NCAA title game that March, surprised everyone by earning a return trip to March Madness.
"I don't think anyone expected us to win," said senior quad-captain Brian Nelson, one of two Ephs still remaining from the 2003-04 squad. "Even getting past Tufts in the first round was a challenge. It's been a great run."
After losing four of their first six games to start the season, the Ephs slowly recovered from their early season setbacks - mainly the inexperience of their freshman class and a minor injury to junior quad-captain Chris Rose - to return to winning form. They entered the NESCAC season with an overall record of just 6-6, but gradually gained momentum over the next month and a half, finishing their season with a NESCAC Tournament run past Tufts, Trinity and, ultimately, the Lord Jeffs.
In yesterday's title game, Amherst built a large padding early on, as junior point guard Andrew Olson and senior quad-captain Dan O'Shea dominated the game offensively. Six minutes in, the Jeffs had built an unthinkable 15-0 lead. Despite the early deficit, the Ephs remained focused, refusing to surrender their title hopes.
"We stayed confident," Shalvoy said. "We were confident in our system and confident in each other, so we just stayed the course."
The Ephs first scored with 13:20 left in the first half, as sophomore guard Kevin Snyder knocked down a three off of a Nelson assist, sending the team on a tear to close the first frame trailing by just six points - 34-28.
"Amherst is very good defensively," Shalvoy said. "They pressure the ball very well, and they cut off passing lanes. So we had to get into the lane with our dribble penetration. Early in the game, we were relying on our outside shooting, and that hurt us, because we weren't knocking down those shots."
Later on, however, the Ephs were unstoppable from the floor. After Rose carried the Ephs with 13 points in the first half, it was Shalvoy who stepped up in the second, draining three-pointers at will to propel the Ephs' offense.
"Both teams know each other pretty well," Nelson said. "So we were just relying on what we've been relying on all season, which is our outside shooting."
Shalvoy finished the game 7-of-9 from three-point land, as the Williams squad collectively made 13 of its 25 attempts from beyond the arc. Defensively, the Ephs had their hands full, as Amherst's lineup includes four players with double-digit scoring averages, including junior Andrew Olson, one of the nation's best point guards.
"He's a great player, and I have a lot of respect for him," Shalvoy said. "We tried to take him out of his comfort zone, which we didn't do that well. He had 12 points and 11 assists, so he pretty much picked our defense apart."
Olson scored nine points in the first half, and junior center Kevin Hopkins chipped in six off the bench, but the Williams defense came to life in the second half, holding the Jeffs' point guard to just three more points and leaving the Jeffs' two-guard, sophomore Brian Baskauskas, just 2-for-10 from the floor.
While the Ephs were able to employ a 1-3-1 zone defense in last week's playoff win over Tufts, shutting down the Jumbos' outside shooters, that strategy failed in the final weekend at Amherst. Fortunately for Williams and coach Dave Paulsen, they were able to adapt.
"We ran the zone against Trinity, but it sort of fell apart," Nelson said. "Some teams it works well with, and some teams it doesn't. We just had to rely on our one-on-one defense against Amherst."
In the end, the Ephs' defenders prevailed. After a back-and-forth final 10 minutes, the Ephs claimed a 70-69 lead with 16 seconds to go on a lay-up from freshman center Joe Geoghegan. After the Jeffs called a timeout to map out their final play, the Eph defense pressured Amherst senior quad-captain Dan Wheeler to miss his lay-up, and seconds later, the Ephs were celebrating their miraculous comeback win.
The win gives Williams, now 16-11 overall, its first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2003-04 run. While this year's team lacks the experience that it once had, the younger, rawer Ephs are undaunted by the pressures of postseason play.
"I think we're a really confident group," Shalvoy said. "We were young early in the season, and we're still young, but we've come a long way. To have a run like this, and beat a lot of good teams, it feels great."
