BENNINGTON, Vt. - The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team turned on the jets after allowing the visiting Mitchell College Mariners to a 8-0 run to start the game and never looked back in a 75-69 victory Saturday in the Field House. Derrick Cenicola and Lance Spratling led SVC with 26 points each to defeat the NECC foe.
The Mountaineers gained the lead in the first with a layup by freshman guard Jordan Smith to make it 19-17. The Mariners quickly regained the lead with a three from Drew Norris, who went 5-of-9 from three-land for 21 pts, to make it 20-19. The momentum shifted once again when Spratling laid it in for two and Cenicola hit a three to make it 24-20 in SVC's favor. The Mountaineers did not give up the lead for the duration of the game leading 38-36 at the half. Cenicola scored 15 of his 26 points in the first half, all on triples.
Southern Vermont led by as much as 10 points in the second half but the Mariners kept chipping away with key three's from Norris and senior guard Mike DePaolo. DePaolo finished the game with a team high 26 points and Alex Vess rounded out the offensive blast with 11 points and seven boards.
Freshman guard Cenicola finished the game going 7-of-8 from behind
the arc and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Junior guard Spratling
was 10-of-20 from the field as he matched up well to the Mariner
defense. Senior forward Joe Karnik and sophomore forward Cam
Herrington contributed 11 points, nine rebounds and eight points,
12 rebounds respectively to round out the Mountaineers attack.
Southern Vermont shot an impressive 49.1% from the field to Mitchell's 40% and SVC also out-rebounded the visitor's 37-36. The Mariner's foul trouble in the second half helped contribute to the Mountaineer victory; Mitchell finished with 24 fouls to Southern Vermont's 14.
SVC improves to 4-5 overall and 1-0 NECC, while MC fell to 1-7 overall. 0-1 NECC.
The Mountaineers head into the winter break with a win and will not be back in action until next year when they face NECC foe Becker College Saturday, January 9th, on the road. It is a doubleheader with the women's teams playing first at 1:00 p.m. and the men at 3:00 p.m.