After 11 lead changes and five tie scores in the second half alone, the men's basketball team secured an 84-82 non-conference victory over Thomas College on Tuesday night. Led by a well-rounded performance from Will Hanley '12, (24 points, 17 rebounds, three assists, and three steals) the Polar Bears improved their record to 13-5.
The visiting Terriers nailed 14 three-pointers and led by three at the half. With 30 seconds to play, Justin Nowell '12 pushed the ball up the court as the clock wound down and got off a layup in traffic, which was rebounded by Max Staiger '13. Staiger was able to finish the play with a lay-in giving the team a one-point lead with 12 seconds left.
Thomas' Jarrad DeVaugn was fouled going up for a layup on its last possession, but failed to convert on either free-throw. Fouled with 0.3 seconds remaining, Ryan O'Connell '12 nailed the first and deliberately missed the second free throw to give the Polar Bears their 13th win of the season. O'Connell finished with 24 points, including four three-pointers.
O'Connell has had the hot hand the past three games, connecting on 13-20 three-pointers including seven in the team's 77-74 overtime victory at Trinity last weekend. The Polar Bears led by as many as eight points after a three-pointer from Tom Carter '13 with 12:20 remaining, but the Bantams responded with an 11-0 run and eventually gained a six-point lead with 4:30 to go.
Will Hanley took control, and in a 30-second span went on a personal five point run. After scoring a layup, Hanley blocked a shot on the other end and finished by converting a hoop-and-harm to bring the Polar Bears within one point.
After Trinity nailed two free throws to raise the lead to three points, O'Connell buried another three-pointer to tie the game at 64. Two free throws from Nowell gave the team a two-point lead with under two minutes remaining, but a lay-in by Trinity forced the game into overtime.
"Trinity is a great program and is always tough at home regardless of their record," said senior captain Randy DeFeo. "We have won a lot of close games this year so when we went into OT we felt confident as a team that we could pull it off."
The Polar Bears outscored Trinity 11-8 in overtime, including O'Connell's final three pointer of the night.
A Bowdoin player threw the ball up in the air in celebration of the three-point overtime victory in the final second. However, there was still .05 seconds remaining, and since the ball hit the ceiling, it was ruled out of bounds, resulting in one last possession for the Bantams. Luckily, the Polar Bears got a hand on the inbounds pass to secure the victory.
"It felt great coming out with the overtime win at Trinity," said O'Connell. "We needed that game to bounce back in conference play and have a chance to host the first round of the NESCAC tournament."
The team also matched up against Amherst College last Saturday afternoon. The Lord Jeffs, currently ranked sixth in the nation, came away with a 103-85 victory after seeing six players reach double figures.
Despite shooting a solid 48 percent from the floor and 80 percent from the line, the Polar Bears failed to get closer than a 14-point deficit as the Jeffs out-rebounded them 41-28 and shot 55 percent from the three-point line.
The team was led by yet another double-double from Hanley with 26 points and 12 rebounds. O'Connell added 16 points while Nowell and first year Andrew Madlinger each had 13. The team is currently 2-3 in the NESCAC.
The Polar Bears host Williams at 6 p.m. on Friday night in Morrell Gymnasium and host Middlebury the following afternoon at 2 p.m. in two NESCAC match-ups.