Sports
Men’s basketball 0-5 in NESCAC
By Yoshi Hill '16
January 28, 2016
Unlike the rest of the student body, who have more than a month to recuperate from the fall semester, the men’s basketball team has a greatly shortened break before they reunite. During the winter recess, the team travelled to Phoenix, Arizona for the Arizona Shootout Tournament, seeking to develop the chemistry of an exceptionally young team. With only three losses, the team had gained a degree of confidence about their individual talents but also regarding their effectiveness as a unit.
On Dec. 29th, they edged out Southern Maine in a 77-72 win, with Peter Hoffmann ’19 displaying his scoring prowess with 19 points to pace the team. Kyle Pitman ’17, who grew up in Phoenix, provided vital scoring off the bench hitting five three-pointers and notching 18 points overall.
In the tournament final, the Continentals faced off against 19th-ranked Wisconsin-Stevens Points, last year’s national champions, for what proved to be a learning experience for the team and demonstrated how far the team has to go to become an elite team. Despite this setback, the team was able to bond off the court, watching the Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Phoenix Suns, hiking Camelback Mountain and celebrating New Year’s hosted by Pitman and his family. Coach Adam Stockwell came away from the trip contented by the growth he witnessed, “We learned about who we are moving forward and that has led to our competitive play on the road in the NESCAC.”
A week later came a tough slate of games heralding the start of league play. Hamilton travelled to New England for taxing back-to-back contests against Conn College then Wesleyan. In the first game, the Continentals shot 53.8 percent from the field, an excellent rate, and led in the final minutes. However, their inexperience showed, as Conn managed to score five straight points to secure the win, 79-75.
The next day, Hamilton suffered yet another heartbreaker, losing in overtime to Wesleyan, 82-76, where again the Continentals’ late-game play let them down. The game was neck-and-neck throughout with 10 lead changes, nine ties and no team leading by more than nine points at any point.
Despite draining losses, the team was able to identify the players it could rely in the future. Jack Dwyer ’18 showed his skill as a distributor for his teammates with a career-best 14 assists against Conn and seven versus Wesleyan. Coach Stockwell commented, “As the season has progressed, Jack Dwyer has stepped up as an on-court leader. He is working on becoming more of a vocal leader and there is no question he has taken the reins of the team.”
The following week, the Continentals welcomed Bates on Jan. 15th and Tufts the next day, two challenging meetings with teams in the top half of the NESCAC. Competing against Bates, the team mounted a strong effort but which was undermined by 15 turnovers that resulted in 25 points for their opponents. Again, Hamilton folded in late-game situations and never recovered from the Bobcats’ 11-2 run. Coach Stockwell highlighted this inability to keep games close and hoped to improve in this department, saying, “The two major areas that cost us these games were our high turnover rates and inconsistency on the defensive end. As a younger team, we are still learning how important it is to value the basketball throughout the course of a game and ensure we get high quality possessions.” The day after, the tired Continentals were blown out by Tufts, one of the top teams in the league and ranked 18th nationally, 86-60. The game was close up until halfway through the second half when Tufts pulled away with a 13-2 run. This last game underlined one of the team’s most glaring weaknesses, the lack of a single proven scorer who is guaranteed to score around 15 points at an efficient rate every game.
The Continentals, nonetheless, are slowly figuring out who might be capable of this role and for now must depend on scoring contributions from various team-members. Stockwell singled out first-year Peter Hoffmann and Dwyer as the most likely candidates and added, “Balanced scoring is one of our strengths this year. We have several players who are capable on any night of having a strong evening, which makes scouting our team more of a challenge. We are a team based on chemistry, unselfishness, and a team first attitude.”
Hamilton capitalized on its home court advantage on Jan. 19th, beating Ithaca College 88-80. Groll led the Continentals with 28 points, and Dwyer dished seven assists in the emphatic home victory. On Jan. 22nd, the Continentals travelled to Williams where the team was unable to tally its first in conference win, losing the NESCAC matchup 73-63. The Continentals closed out the week with a strong non-conference performance against Keystone College. Hoffman led Hamilton with 19 points and Dwyer added 12 points and eight assists in the 83-75 victory.