Auburn - Tonight's YSCC rivalry game between the Seawolves and the Mustangs of CMCC, the top two teams in the conference's east division, was everything a spectator could ask for. The game included six ties, 11 lead changes, alley-oops, NBA-style dunks and a clutch three pointer by Seawolves' point guard Jordan DeRosby (Waterville, ME) with 2.9 seconds remaining to give the Seawolves a 73-72 victory.
With 6:51 seconds left in the first half and the game tied at 25, a made jump shot by forward Tyheem Simon (Queens, NY) spurred an 11-0 run by the Seawolves to put SMCC in the driver's seat, 36-25. CMCC's Preston Isner ended the Mustangs offensive drought when he sunk a pair of free throws at the 2:37 mark. Isner put up four more points before the end of the half to help the Mustangs close the lead to six, 39-33, before entering the break.
Isner picked up where he left off in the second half, converting on a layup one minute into the half to pull the Mustangs to within four points. The Seawolves' responded with three consecutive three pointers by DeRosby, Grayson Waterman (Berwick, ME) and Kevin Fabian (Lawrence, MA) to balloon the lead back to 12 points. Between the 17:40 and 14:32 marks the Mustangs went on a 15-4, which included two makes from downtown by CMCC's Raymond Monroe, to slash the Seawolves' lead to a single point. Over the next few minutes, the Seawolves were able to gain an eight point advantage but the Mustangs once again cut it to one, 59-58, with 7:49 to play.
A back and forth game resulted in a 70-68 score in favor of the Mustangs with one minute remaining in the game. Seawolves' captain Atencio Martin (Kittery, ME) hauled in an offensive rebound and connected on the putback to knot the game at 70-70, but CMCC answered immediately with a Carrington Miller jumpshot to regain a two point edge with 19 seconds left in the game. A timeout was taken by Seawolves head coach Matt Richards to draw up a last second play and in what appeared to be flawless execution, DeRosby came off a baseline screen by big man Carlos Gonzalez (Lewiston, ME), received a pass in the corner from Fabian and launched a shot for the win that hit nothing but the bottom of the net. With 2.9 seconds on the clock the Mustangs got off a last second desperation attempt that was no good, and the Seawolves held on to get the 73-72 win.
Martin and DeRosby led the Seawolves' with 14 points apiece and center Jack Tolan (South Portland, ME) chipped in 12. Isner was high scorer for the Mustangs, netting 14 on 6-12 shooting.
The Seawolves (12-1, 8-0) remain unbeaten in conference play and will close out the semester on Sunday with an out of conference match against Central Penn at home at 1pm.
