BENNINGTON, Vt. - The Southern Vermont College Mountaineers proved in the first half Tuesday night that they can compete with Elms College one of the top ranked (12th) Division III teams in the country. With EC's range of depth, 18 players seeing time, the Blazers jumped ahead in the second half to defeat the Mountaineers 98-73 in the SVC Field House.
The Mountaineers kept it close in the first half tying it up at 25-25 with a Jaret Falkowitz free throw with 9:07 left in the first. Falkowitz drained the second of the pair to give SVC the lead 26-25. The battle for the lead ensued until Elms went on a 14-0 run and went into the break with a 49-40 lead.
"We were just not prepared for their intensity from the beginning of the first half," Elms head coach Ed Silva said. "During an early timeout, we spoke about stepping up and overpowering (SVC) with our own amount of intensity and deep bench."
Leading Southern Vermont was captain power forward Joe Karnik who scored 18 (pts) and ripped down 15 (rbs) for a double-double. Ben Naaktgeboren and Falkowitz posted 17 (pts) and 15 (pts) for the Mountaineers who fell to 7-16 overall and 4-8 in the NECC.
The Blazers full court press drove SVC to exhaustion and eventually broke them down. Elms depth coming off the bench is why they are 22-1 overall and 12-0 in the NECC. Led by Juan Galdon with 16 (pts), 7 (assists). Aswad Thomas and Dan Gonzalez posted 14 (pts) each.
"I am pleased with the fact that we had full-blown effort from all of our guys through the entire 40-minutes," SVC head coach Michael McDonough said. "It was just a difficult match-up for us; they're ranked for a reason. Elms brings an endless amount of fresh legs and fresh aggressiveness that we just plainly can't compete with because they are matching us in waves of substitutions."
The dagger seemed to come when Galdon pushed the Blazers' lead to 20 with a three-pointer from the right wing with 14:14 remaining in the game. The Mountaineers could not cut into the lead from that point on.
"At this point we have already talked about forgetting this loss and mentally preparing for the future," Karnik said. "We're in a race to make the playoffs and we need to be ready for our last two games."
Southern Vermont College will hit the road for its last away game to face-off against Wheelock College in an NECC showdown at 9:00 p.m.