OWINGS MILLS, Md. — After 13 lead changes, the 14th came with just six seconds left to play and provided Salisbury University a 60-59 win over the Southern Vermont College men's basketball team Friday afternoon in the first day of the 2015 Hoopsville National Invitational Classic hosted by Stevenson University.
The Sea Gulls (3-0) led just 27-26 going to halftime, and the teams continued to battle through the second period before a late layup fell for Salisbury to win the first all-time meeting between the two programs. Southern Vermont (1-1) concludes its Maryland visit on Saturday with a 6 p.m. tip-off against the University of St. Thomas – Minnesota back at Stevenson.
Mountaineer senior Casey Hall (Albany, N.Y.) led all players with a career-best 17 points, adding three rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block to his line. Classmate DeShawn Hamlet (Hartford, Conn.) tallied 12 points, three steals, two rebounds and two assists while fellow senior William Bromirski (Cambridge, N.Y.) registered 10 points with a pair of treys. Senior captain Antoine White (Bethesda, Md.) had six points to go along with his seven boards that tied the team-high, classmate Jeff James (Bowie, Md.) pulling down another seven rebounds while both players notched four assists.
Nearly every statistical category was close between the two sides, Salisbury out-rebounding SVC by a 38-37 margin while turning the ball over 16 times to the Mountaineers' 18. Southern Vermont outscored the Gulls both in the paint (36-31) and in points from the bench (14-10), but SU topped SVC 18-10 in points off turnovers and 7-6 in fast-break points. Southern Vermont owned a 43.6 field goal percentage while Salisbury shot at a 35.5 percent clip from the floor.
Salisbury grabbed the first lead of the game with a layup off an SVC turnover, but Hall answered with a three-ball at the top of the perimeter for the Mountaineers to go in front. The SVC senior would follow with another trey just over a minute later for a 6-4 Southern Vermont upper hand, and he then laid one off the glass for SVC to go up by four (10-6).
Hall's third bucket of the game was followed by a scoring drought that lasted 1:35 before he ended it with a layup. SU continued to struggle as a turnover allowed Hamlet to get an easy basket for the Mountaineers' biggest advantage of the afternoon, going up 14-6 as both sides settled in to trade scores back-and-forth. An old-fashioned three-point play for the Sea Gulls at the 10:27 mark started a 9-0 Salisbury run, putting SU up 20-18 for the Gulls' first lead since there was 18:26 on the clock. Hall notched his 12th point of the half with an ensuing layup to tie the contest before another 2:30 stretch of scoreless action saw four combined turnovers as neither team could sustain traction.
Two successful free throws from SVC junior Brandon Casella (Pittsfield, Mass.) put the Mountaineers on top by one with just under four minutes to go in the half, but the lead would switch sides another five times before the break with neither squad going up by more than one down the stretch. Southern Vermont freshman Josh Borders (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) got a layup to go for the 26-25 edge with 51 ticks on the clock, only to see Salisbury utilize its bonus to hit a pair of shots from the charity stripe to regain the lead, a 27-26 upper hand it would take into the locker room.
Out of the intermission, Southern Vermont notched the first six points as Hamlet converted an and-one play before Bromirski drilled a three-pointer to put SVC on top 32-27. Salisbury responded with five unanswered points to tie it up, starting a 12-2 Gull run that put SU up by a handful. The Mountaineer defense continued to force turnovers to keep the Sea Gulls from pulling away while Borders dropped in a floater down the lane to make it just a four-point Salisbury edge.
A pair of good Hall free throws preceded the big man from taking a great dish by Hamlet for a pretty finish, those being the first four points of a 13-2 SVC run that put the Mountaineers back on top. Bromirski knocked down two jumpers in that time, the second being towards the end of the stretch to put his team up by four (50-46). Salisbury cut the deficit to two with a long ball, only to see Bromirski line up and answer with one of his own on the other end to push it back to five with 4:36 to play.
The deep scoring persisted as junior Justin Witmer (Gaithersburg, Md.) downed his third three-pointer of the half to keep it a one-possession game as it went to the media timeout with Southern Vermont up 54-52 with 3:30 left on the clock. Salisbury continued to put up long attempts, none going through the rim, however, as the strategy was nearly detrimental. Hamlet would tally three points on two separate possessions, but an and-one play by senior Kyle Savercool (Silver Spring, Md.) over a minute later trimmed it to a one-point Mountaineer lead. White padded his team's advantage with a layup out of an SVC timeout, but two more Gull free throws would make it 59-58 in favor of Southern Vermont.
Misses on both ends of the floor allowed the Mountaineers to use their final timeout with 27 seconds to go, giving them an opportunity to draw up the desired play. From the top, right edge of the key, White swung it down low to Hamlet who drove baseline, but a traveling call gave the ball to Salisbury with little time left. SU used a stoppage of its own, setting up a play that got the ball to sophomore Jordan Brooks (Owings Mills, Md.); he drove from the right side and got a layup to float over Hall's swat attempt and through the rim for the big bucket. Southern Vermont ran the flood quickly with time expiring, and Bromirski was able to get a three-point look before the buzzer. It would catch only iron, however, as the buzzer sounded for Salisbury to walk out with the win.