UR has not been this excited about a sports team in 10 years.
The crowd of 1,044 that saw the Yellowjackets defeat Williams College 66-51 Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Div. III Tournament was the largest at the Palestra since 1992.
That was the year the men’s basketball team went 28-3 and was the national runner-up. UR hosted a second round game at the Palestra that year as well.
“It was an impressive turnout. There was clearly something in the air,” head coach Mike Neer said. “I was glad everybody had a chance to experience that ? everybody on the team, every student, alum, everybody.”
This is UR’s fifth trip to the Sweet 16. The Yellow-jackets (22-4) face Babson College (25-4) at 6 p.m. Friday at SUNY Brockport. If they win, they will play the winner of the game between Brockport (27-2) and Amherst College (22-6) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Brockport for the right to go to the Final Four in Salem, VA.
Neer realizes that UR students will be on break next week, but he was hopeful that some would be willing to make the trip to Brockport this weekend. The games will be played at Tuttle North Gymnasium. Tickets are $4 for students and senior citizens and $5 for general admission.
“I hope they can delay their trips south by one day,” Neer said. “We brought our own energy [Saturday], but the crowd made it electric.”
Neer also had some advice for how students should spend the end of their break.
“They heard it here first. When they come back, they can swing through Virginia on the way,” Neer said. “I’ll be happy to leave directions on the website.”
With senior forward Kyle Leach out with a broken foot, freshman guard Gabe Perez made his first start of the year against Williams. Neer has not yet decided who the fifth starter will be Friday.
“We’ll look at tape and see. That’s the flexibility we have with having created very dependable depth,” Neer said. “I think it was a little bit of an advantage that Gabe wasn’t as much of a known factor as Kyle Leach was.”
Since an Elite Eight game would be Saturday, UR is also preparing for a potential match-up with either Brockport or Amherst.
“Should we win ? and that is what we’re planning on doing ? you have 24 hours to turn it around,” Neer said. “So we’re getting ready to potentially handle three opponents.”
Brockport coach Nelson Whitmore has said all season that the Golden Eagles have the best team in the area. UR may get a chance to find out first-hand Saturday.
“We want a shot at the Final Four,” Neer said. “Brockport believes they’re very, very good and capable of winning a national championship and I think they are. But I think we are too.”
“You get this far and all you’ve got to do is put together a four-game winning streak and you’re national champs.”
If the Yellowjackets continue to play the way they did against Williams, four more wins are not out of the question.
UR played good, smart basketball, and the raucous crowd helped boost the Yellowjackets and distract Williams.
“I can’t even explain the rush I got from playing in the Palestra on Saturday night,” junior guard Jeff Joss said. “From the very beginning, with the opening tip, the crowd was on their feet cheering.”
“I couldn’t hear [junior guard Tim] Sweeney or coach call the plays half the time. I’ve been playing basketball for a long time, and that was by far the most exciting game I have ever been a part of.”
Williams hit a jump shot 33 seconds into the game to take a 2-0 lead, but Joss tied the game with a jumper 1:15 later and Williams never led again.
The Yellowjackets played their style of basketball and the Ephs, who scored 121 points in a first-round win over Cazenovia College, only managed 17 points in the first half.
“We clearly have a slower tempo than most people we play,” Neer said. “I thought Williams had to adapt to us more than we had to adapt to them. Clearly, the whole atmosphere helped with that.”
Williams only trailed by six points with 1:49 left in the first half, but an 8-0 run gave UR a 14-point halftime lead.
“The last three minutes of the first half really broke the game open and really left Williams shaking their heads at halftime,” Neer said.
The guards provided most of the offense as Joss and Sweeney each scored 13 points and Perez added 10 for UR. Freshman forward Seth Hauben led the team with 14 points.
“Our big guys are more of a threat ? they’re all animals underneath the hoop,” Joss said. “Teams won’t be afraid of Sweeney, [junior guard Justin] Hughes, Gabe or myself. We’re just the little guys, but when teams decide to concentrate on the studs down low, a good team will have a counterpunch and luckily a few of us were hitting shots.”
Neer was more complimentary of the backcourt.
“Our guards were the reason we won,” Neer said. “[Williams] collapsed on our big guys because that has been our strength. We recognized and Joss and Sweeney hit some timely, back-breaking 3’s.”
At the beginning of the second half, it looked like UR might let its lead slip away. Williams went on a 14-2 run to make the score 35-31 with 13 minutes left to play.
After Neer called a timeout, Sweeney hit a jumper with the shot clock winding down and Joss buried a 3-pointer to push the lead back up to nine points.
UR was not challenged again and Williams started fouling with 2:08 left to try to slow the clock down, but the Yellowjackets hit 13 of 14 free throws down the stretch.
“The crowd gave us a huge lift and played a role in our ability to close the game out,” Sweeney said.
While the crowd was a factor in Williams’ offensive struggles, Perez was probably a bigger factor. He got to start and play 28 minutes in part because Neer wanted to have more speed on the court to try and prevent Williams from taking a lot of open 3-pointers. The plan worked, as Williams only made 4 of 21 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I think I kind of shook things up a little bit offensively and defensively,” Perez said. “Defensively, I think I was able to help out in the job of stopping their transition offense and the amount of 3-pointers made.”
Now that the big home crowd has helped the Yellowjackets get rid of any opening-round jitters, they can concentrate on playing fundamentally strong basketball on the road.
“Hopefully we can utilize the momentum created on Saturday night to lead us to a focused and productive week of preparation for a tough Babson team.” Sweeney said.
Jacobs can be reached at bjacobs@campustimes.org
