Men's Basketball

BENNINGTON, Vt. - The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team was riding a high wave of momentum into its final six league games after winning on Thursday night against Lesley University.

Unfortunately, the crest of SVC's inspiration vanished on Saturday afternoon when the Mountaineers lost at home to Newbury College, 81-71.

In the early going, Southern Vermont (6-14 overall, 3-6 New England Collegiate Conference) and Newbury handed the lead back and forth as neither team could run away with a string of baskets. With 11:03 remaining in the first half, the Mountaineers began to put everything together, playing tough defense, hitting outside shots and dominating inside to go on a 10-2 run.

The run was capped by Cameron Herrington's hustle, as he stole the ball on defense and hit Brett Clatworthy with a nice pass in three-point land - but Clatworthy couldn't capitalize on the opportunity. Herrington snagged the offensive rebound and dropped in an easy put-back, giving SVC a commanding 26-20 lead.

After that point, the Nighthawks (6-14, 3-5) made some adjustments on defense and controlled the paint, holding the Mountaineers to just two points over the next 6:07. SVC trailed at the end of the first half 39-34.

"In beginning of the game we were defending on-the-ball well, but we just couldn't find the correct off-the-ball assignments," NC head coach Evan O'Brien said. "We made some defensive changes that worked for us and we defended inside much better late in the first half and for the remainder of the game."

Overall, the Mountaineers struggled to get quality looks at the basket on outside shots, and when they could penetrate deep into the key, NC defenders were there to contest even the easiest layups. The story of the game was in the numbers: The Mountaineers shot 42.9 percent from the field and went 4-of-20 from behind the three-point arc. The Nighthawks hit 50.0 percent of their field goals and shot 11-of-20 from three-point land.

"We didn't do enough of the things that make us successful over the course of the full 40 minutes, we fell into some of our old, bad habits," SVC head coach Michael McDonough said. "We didn't make the extra pass when we needed to and definitely got out-rebounded in key situations. Basketball is not a game of assignments, it is a game of choices and we just didn't make the proper choices today."

The Nighthawks controlled the boards for the entire game, finishing with 42 rebounds to SVC's 34. More importantly, NC went up strong and got offensive and defensive rebounds at key moments throughout the game. At one point in the second half, NC's John Rowley Jr. (29 points) fought hard and grabbed three consecutive offensive rebounds, while being surrounded by four timid SVC defenders.

"It is always difficult to take that long bus ride up here in the morning for an afternoon game and then compete for the full 40 minutes," O'Brien said. "We came out and battled right off the opening tip and didn't let up throughout and it's difficult to lose when we can do that."

The Mountaineers' shooting struggles continued into the second half, but with 13:31 remaining Joe Karnik attempted to spark a comeback with a thunderous dunk on a sly pass from Jaret Falkowitz. The Nighthawks answered right back with a dagger of a three-pointer from Robert Foley in the right corner that commenced a seven-point run over the next 2:02. SVC could never cut the lead down to a sizable margin from that point.

"This is certainly a setback, we had our moments throughout," McDonough said. "But it's just a matter of finding consistency and putting an entire game of proper execution together."

The Mountaineers had three players in double figures as Karnik led the team with 18 points, Falkowitz finished with 17 and Herrington chipped in with 13. There are major playoff implications involved in all of SVC's five remaining regular season games. The team hopes to erase the memory of Saturday's tough loss when the team travels to Daniel Webster College on Tuesday.

"After the game we talked about moving on, forgetting about this loss and finding that better-executing team again before going on the road Tuesday." McDonough said.