BENNINGTON, Vt. — The #5 seed Regis College men's basketball team dropped a 73-68 decision to #1 seed Southern Vermont College Friday night in a rematch of the 2015 NECC Championship.
The Mountaineers pulled in front of the Pride in the second half to win the league tournament's first semifinal of the evening played at the Mountaineer Athletic Center.
Regis grabbed the early lead going up by as many as 13 late in the opening period before taking a 37-30 upper hand into the locker room. SVC went in front for the first time all night with 10:41 left in the second half and pulled ahead to grab a sizable advantage. The Pride fought to the end but fell short, a buzzer-beating three by the visitors gave the Mountaineers a five-point victory over the reigning NECC Champions.
Southern Vermont improves to 23-3 on the year while extending its winning streak to 15 games. Regis ends its 2015-16 campaign with an overall record of 12-15.
Mountaineer senior Casey Hall (Albany, N.Y.) tied the game-high of 16 points while pulling down a game and career-best 14 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double and fifth of the season. Junior Rayshawn Taylor (Silver Spring, Md.) came off the bench to score 14 points and grab six boards, and senior DeShawn Hamlet (Hartford, Conn.) had 12 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the year. SVC freshman Josh Borders (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) had five points, five rebounds, and a game-high five assists in the win.
Regis junior Sam Jean-Gilles (Melrose, Mass.) tied Hall's 16 points while adding five rebounds and four assists to his line. RC senior Jordan Monts (Springfield, Mass.) and freshman Ademola Afonja (Staten Island, N.Y.) each had 14 points and six boards on the night as Monts dished out a pair of helpers.
SVC shot 32.8 percent (20-61) from the floor while RC connected on 35.3 percent (24-68) of its field goal attempts. The Pride had great success from deep, going 11-for-24 (45.8 percent) from three-point distance as the Mountaineers were just 5-for-23 (21.7 percent) on long-balls. Southern Vermont owned a strong 56-39 advantage on the glass, using its 20-11 offensive rebound tally to outscore Regis 20-7 in second-chance points. SVC ran the floor well, notching 30 fast-break points to the Pride's two.
Regis won the opening tip and ran the shot clock all the way down before Jean-Gilles connected on a trey with just seconds left, but Hamlet answered soon-after with a triple of his own on the left edge of the arc to tie it up as the battle began. RC got a huge spark when Monts lobbed it up toward the hoop where Afonja was able to grab the pass and slam home the alley-oop, putting the Pride in front 8-3.
A three-ball from RC senior Jeff Tagger Jr. (Brockton, Mass.) extended Regis' upper hand to 24-16, and six unanswered Pride points, capped by a jumper from senior Hector Heredia (Lawrence, Mass.), then pushed the lead out to 13 (35-22). SVC closed out the half with a 6-1 spurt, started by a trey at the right edge of the perimeter from sophomore Daemond Carter (Forestville, Md.), sending the game to halftime with the Mountaineers down 37-30.
The two sides traded scores as play resumed before SVC rallied for 12 straight points to tie it at 46-46. Hall made a steal in the Regis end as the Mountaineers applied the press, slamming home an electrifying dunk during that run. Afonja answered with a slam and an ensuing jumper to put his team back in front, only to see Southern Vermont complete a pair of and-one plays to take its first lead of the night at 53-50. Taylor would add six straight points with a downtown bucket and his second old-fashioned three-point play of the half, and a Hall spin move in the lane allowed him to sink a jumper from the key to give SVC the 64-57 upper hand.
Regis notched the next five to inch back, Jean-Gilles banging home a three from the top of the arc to make it a two-point game. Missed shots at both ends of the floor brought the game to the final minute where Southern Vermont went up six with a pair of Taylor free throws. Monts connected on a trey to get Regis back to within five, but SVC took advantage of bonus trips to the line to seal the deal. Monts got a three to go from just over the half-court line as time expired, but it was a meaningless basket as the Mountaineers celebrated their second straight trip to the Conference finals.
Release Courtesy of Southern Vermont College Sports Information