NEWBURGH, N.Y. – Sophomore guard
Connor Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) sent the crowd into a frenzy after draining a three from the far corner to send Tuesday's contest into overtime. The momentum from his shot carried over into the extra period, where the Knights outplayed the Panthers to pick up a 66-63 Skyline Conference victory over the defending conference champions at the Kaplan Center.
With the win, the Knights improve to 6-13 overall, but more importantly, they now hold a 5-7 Skyline record, putting them in position for a late playoff push. The loss drops Purchase to 5-6 in the conference and 5-13 overall on the year.
The end of the first half could not have gone more poorly for the Knights. After cutting the deficit to eight points with 2:44 to play, a turnover turned into two points on a fast break for the Panthers, who then held the Knights off the board and scored again to go up by 12. The Knights held the Panthers with eight seconds left and headed down the court for one final shot. They had a hard time holding onto the rebound, though, and turned the ball over in the back court, leading to a buzzer-beating layup by Nicholas Jackson to put Purchase up, 32-18, at the break.
The Knights came out of the locker room with some fire, and managed to cut the deficit to just five on a layup by sophomore forward
Alex Smith (Marlboro, N.Y.) with 13:57 to play in regulation. After a jumper by Creig Graves, Nicholson fired off and made a three to get the Knights within four. After a Purchase foul on the other end of the court, freshman guard
Daniel Wolff (Holtsville, N.Y.) converted on a jumper to put the Knights within two points. Jose Reyes tried to stop the momentum with a three for the Panthers, but freshman forward
Gerard Nocera (Holmdel, N.J.) lit the crowd up again with a three of his own on the next play.
Purchase managed to pull back out to a five-point lead, but Nicholson drew a foul and made both shots to get back within three. Wolff stole the ball on the next play, and then hit a huge three to tie the game at 45 apiece. Purchase got up again on a free throw by Taylor Foster, but the hot-handed Wolff hit another long ball to put the Knights in the lead at 48-46. Nocera sank a layup on the next Knight possession to push the lead to four with the clock reading 7:14.
Troy Singleton got Purchase back within one after a three-pointer, and the Panthers tied the game on a free throw the next time they had the ball.
Alex Smith turned the game back in the Knights' favor by scoring the next four points, but Purchase turned it back around with the next five to go up, 55-54, with 2:53 to go. Nocera managed to tie on a free-throw attempt with 1:21 on the clock, but was unable to make the second.
The final 30 seconds of the game were as dramatic as they could come. Reyes attempted a long three to give Purchase the lead. He missed the shot, but Michael Pelham managed to steal the rebound, and turned it into a three-point play after drawing a foul on a good layup and the ensuing foul shot. The Knights regrouped with a timeout, and drew up one more play with the hope of tying the game. After firing the ball around the perimeter, Nocera found Nicholson as far into the corner as he could be, where he shot one off from seemingly behind the basket and hit nothing but net to tie the game with eight seconds to play. Pelham ran down the court and got off a decent three-point opportunity, but it hit the side of the rim. It then landed in Foster's hands, but he was unable to get off a good shot before the buzzer sounded, sending the game into overtime.
The Panthers won the opening tip of the extra frame, but the Knights forced a missed three by Singleton. Having yet to cool off, Wolff lined up deep and made a three right in front of the Knight bench to put the home team up, 61-58. Justin Person made a layup for Purchase to cut it back to one, but Smith then hit one-of-two from the charity stripe to put the home team back up by two. He was fouled again on the Knights' next possession, and made both to double the lead. Smith continued to take over, and got a good roll on a layup the next time he saw the ball to improve the Knight lead to 66-60.
Singleton followed up Smith's layup with a deep three to cut the Knight lead in half with 1:38 to play. Wolff missed a jumper on the next play, but the Knights got the ball right back after Foster was called for a charge. Nocera got a little too aggressive when the Knights got the ball, and he, too, was called for an offensive foul when driving to the hoop.
Purchase chose to hold for one final shot to try and tie the game on their final possession. Reyes fired from way down town to try and draw with four seconds to go, but was unable to connect. Time expired before either team could grab the rebound, and the Knights bench stormed the court to celebrate their biggest win of the season.
Smith had his greatest collegiate game to date Tuesday evening, picking up a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds. He also played a clean game, and was not called for a single foul in his 37 minutes on the court. Nocera matched Smith with 16 points, while Wolff made 4-of-5 threes to bank 14 points for the night. Freshman guard
Tyler McDine (Suffern, N.Y.) did not score on Tuesday, but helped out with a game-high eight assists.
Singleton led the Panthers with 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench in their loss. Reyes went 4-of-15 for the game, all from three-point range, to register 12 points. He was matched by Graves, who also scored 12.
After shooting just 31.8 percent (7-of-22) in the first half, the Knights caught fire and shot 52 percent (13-of-25) in the second half, including 7-of-13 (53.9 percent) from beyond the arc. They held Purchase to just 26.7 percent (8-of-30) shooting in the second half to help them come back.
With two huge wins in the past four days, and playing much-improved basketball as of late, the Knights head into a big matchup at Farmingdale State College on Thursday, Feb. 5, with a lot to play for. Tip-off for Thursday's crucial contest is set for 7 p.m.
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