NEW LONDON, Conn. — After being down by as many as 11 during the first half, the Southern Vermont College men's basketball team fought back to secure an 86-81 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) win at Mitchell College Saturday afternoon, taking down the reigning conference champions to remain undefeated in league play.
SVC junior DeShawn Hamlet (Hartford, Connecticut) recorded his fourth double-double of the season with a game-highs of 29 points and 12 rebounds to help the Mountaineers improve their NECC record to 3-0 (9-3 overall); it is the first time since the inception of the league in 2008 that Southern Vermont has started the NECC schedule with three straight wins. The loss drops MC to 2-7 on the year, 0-2 in the conference.
Hamlet shot 8-14 from the field and went 13-16 at the line while senior captain Dolapo Olugbile (Laurel, Maryland) followed with 13 points and six rebounds. Junior Casey Hall (Albany, New York) also reached double figures with 10 points to go with seven rebounds, and junior captain Antoine White (Bethesda, Maryland) had seven points and six boards on the afternoon, adding a game-best and career-high 11 assists to his line.
Four Mariners hit double digits in the points column with junior Donavan McClean (Jersey City, New Jersey) leading the team at 26. Senior Parris Hill (Stockton, California) followed with 23 points to go with 11 rebounds for the double-double while junior Frank Martin (Port St. Lucie, Florida) chipped in with 11 points. Junior Devonta Mosley (Gainesville, Florida) added 10 points off the Mitchell bench.
Both sides shot well from the field with SVC hitting on 30-of-62 attempts (48.4 percent) compared to the Mariners' 46.8 percent (29-62). The Southern Vermont bench outscored Mitchell's 48-18 while the Mountaineers had a 43-26 advantage on the boards.
Mitchell jumped on top early, taking to a quick 5-0 lead with McClean scoring the first two baskets of the day. SVC responded with six unanswered, however, just to see the Mariners come back with a 10-0 run that saw McClean score another six points to put his team ahead 15-6. The two teams traded baskets over the next seven minutes before a three-pointer by MC sophomore Wyatt Springer (Port St. Lucie, Florida) gave the hosts their biggest lead of the day at 26-15 with 6:18 to go in the first half.
At that point of the stanza, SVC took to a 10-3 run with Hamlet being dominant for the Mountaineers, scoring eight points during the stretch that pulled his team to within four (29-25). Southern Vermont continued to chip away at its deficit through the remainder of the period, trimming the Mitchell lead to just 35-34 heading into the locker room.
Following the break, the two squads continued to battle with neither team being able to get enough momentum to pull away. Midway through the second, a Parris jumper put his team in front 62-57, but the Mountaineers then saw four players hit shots while outscoring MC 10-4 over the next three minutes to take a 67-66 lead after a pair of successful free throws by sophomore Nate Goldsmith (Seat Pleasant, Maryland).
Over the next 3:30 of play, the game saw eight lead changes as the sides battled down the stretch. Hill scored all eight Mitchell points during the back-and-forth, only to have the Mountaineers answer on the other end of the floor each time. After another Hill jumper went in to make it 78-76 in favor of SVC, Mosley knocked down a jumper of his own to tie the contest with 1:43 to go.
Coming out of a Southern Vermont timeout and off the visitors' bench, Mountaineer sophomore Brandon Casella (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) took a feed from White on the outside of the arc and hit a big-time trey to once again give his team the lead. Mitchell tried to answer with a three of its own on the following possession, but it would not go home while Hall pulled down the carom; he got it to Hamlet who was subsequently fouled and sent to the line. He made the most of his trip to the charity stripe, hitting both shots to increase Southern Vermont's advantage to 83-78.
MC then went down and tried for the quick bucket as Martin took the ball and drove to the hoop, getting his layup to go while drawing the foul; he hit his free throw for the old-fashioned three-point play, cutting the SVC lead to 83-81 with 13 seconds left.
After a pair of Mitchell timeouts sandwiched a Martin foul on Hamlet, the Southern Vermont junior went back to the line and connected on another pair of free throws to up the score to 85-81; Hill attempted a desperation three with under 10 ticks left on the clock, one that failed to go in and resulted in an Olugbile rebound. The Mountaineer captain went to the line and hit the front-end of his bonus opportunity, sealing the deal with three seconds to go for SVC to take the 86-81 victory.
Southern Vermont returns to action Tuesday with a 7 p.m. NECC tip-off at Newbury while Mitchell looks ahead to its 7:30 p.m. league start at Daniel Webster College the same evening.