Concord, NH - In this afternoon's YSCC championship game, the Seawolves were hindered by a combination of foul trouble, poor perimeter shooting and a 51-46 rebound margin in favor of the opponent which allowed the College of St. Joseph's to grab a 73-67 overtime victory over top-ranked SMCC.
Both teams struggled to find their offense in the opening minutes of this afternoon's contest as St. Joe's led by a score of just 6-4 after six minutes of play. Chase Soares (Falmouth, MA) was able to kickstart the Seawolves offense when he connected on back to back shots from downtown that ignited a 13-3 SMCC run. The Saints battled back to cut the lead to just six after shooting guard Kyle Houston rattled off four points with under a minute left to play in the half. As time expired Seawolves' captain Atencio Martin (Kittery, ME) was fouled on a last-second, long-range three pointer, sending him to the free throw line with less than a second on the clock. Martin knocked down all three of his shots from the charity stripe to pump the Seawolves lead back up to nine as the teams entered the locker rooms.
To start the second half Martin picked up right where he left off, scoring four of the first seven second half points for the Seawolves as they built their largest lead of the game, 40-27. Saints' sixth man Steven Edwards was able to single-handedly erase the Seawolves lead when he scored 14 consecutive points for the Saints, including four made three-pointers, giving the Saints the 50-46 lead with 8:19 remaining. Martin and Seawolves' forward Tyheem Simon (Queens, NY) combined to score 16 of the Seawolves' final 18 points if regulation, including three clutch free throws, one by Simon and two by Martin, to send the game to overtime.
Throughout the course of regulation foul trouble had disqualified Seawolves' big man Carlos Gonzalez (Lewiston, ME) and point guard Jordan DeRosby (Waterville, ME) so SMCC would begin the overtime battle without two of their starting five. The Seawolves struck first in overtime with a made layup from Martin but the Saints responded on the following possession with a made layup by Josh McAfee. With 1:14 left in overtime the Saints had the ball and were clinging to a three point lead, 70-67. A couple missed close outs by the Seawolves resulted in three offensive rebounds for the Saints and eventually ended with an SM foul that sent Houston to the free throw line where he connected on both to give CSJ a five point lead with :30 remaining. The Seawolves were able to get a couple good looks ffrom the perimeter in the final seconds but were unable to connect, shooting only 4-28 from beyond the arc for the game. CSJ held the lead, defeating SMCC in a thriller, to claim the YSCC championship.
Martin led all Seawolves scorers with 22 points and Simon ended with 19. Simon was honored as the Offensive Player of the Elite 8 Tournament, averaging 17.6 points per game over the course of the tournament.
Edwards was high scorer for the Saints with 21 points, including 6 makes from three point range. Kashean Alston netted 16, grabbed eight rebounds and earned Defensive Player of the Tournament. MVP was given to CSJ's Dre Anderson who ended the game with nine points and seven rebounds.
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