Box Score AMHERST, Mass. – For the second consecutive season the Plattsburgh State men's basketball team saw its campaign come to a screeching halt against Amherst College as the No. 7-ranked Lord Jeffs bested the Cardinals 87-63 in the sectional semifinals of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament at LeFrak Gymnasium on Friday night.
In his collegiate curtain call, senior John Perez amassed a team-high 16 points to lead a quartet of Plattsburgh State players who racked up double digits in the scoring column, but as a whole the Cardinals simply had no answer to the scorching shooting of Amherst.
The Lord Jeffs (26-3) , who shot 55.4-percent (31-of-56) from the field, were led by Tom Killian's game-high 22 points. Aaron Toomey added a double-double of 15 points and a game-high 12 assists while David George finished one blocked shot shy of a triple double, registering 13 points, 11 rebounds and nine rejections.
Although the Cardinals saw their season come to an end, Plattsburgh State (24-6) has very little to hang its head about. Making its sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament under the leadership of head coach Tom Curle, Plattsburgh State advanced to the sectional semifinal round of the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in program history.
2013-14 also marked the fifth time in the Curle era that Plattsburgh State has reached the 20-win plateau. Chris Manning closed out his career with a game-high eight steals as well as a trio of assists.
Powering the high-scoring Amherst offense during its 7-0 surge to open the sectional semifinal bout was two-time reigning NESCAC Player of the Year in Toomey. The senior registered assists on all three of the Lord Jeffs' field goals during their opening salvo.
In order to counter Amherst's sharp passing and accurate shooting touch, the Cardinals set up shop from downtown. John Perez finally got Plattsburgh State on the board by connecting on a layup with 2:03 elapsed in the first stanza. After a Manning free throw, Edward Correa began the Cardinals' long-range assault with hit first trifecta of the night.
After adding another, Correa gave way to Ezra Hodgson who splashed another Plattsburgh State triple to pull the visiting squad within 13-12 with 15:06 to go in the bout.
With that, though, sophomore Connor Green began to heat up significantly for the Lord Jeffs. The sharpshooter poured in eight points during a 16-4 Amherst offensive blitz that both energized the pro-Lord Jeff audience and left the Cardinals at a loss for any answers.
Facing down a 29-16 deficit, Plattsburgh pulled to within nine after an additional jumper from Hodgson as well as a close-range bank shot from senior Shavar Fields.
Not solely content with facilitating the Lord Jeffs' offense, Toomey began to put his scoring skills on display through the course of a 13-2 surge by the sizzling home squadron. Of the 13 points netted by the Amherst during that span, Toomey scored seven of them himself and assisted on another pair of Amherst long-range hits.
Mike Mitchell finally provided the Cardinals with some much-needed offense by drilling a three-pointer of his own to pull Plattsburgh State within 42-25 with 3:45 to go in the half, but the Lord Jeffs were absolutely relentless in their shelling of the Cardinals.
Amherst went on regain their 20-point cushion by the time the first half was in the books on the strength of 53.1-percent field goal shooting during the frame. Meanwhile, the Cardinals connected on just 33.3-percent of their field goals during the first 20-minute period in which they were out-rebounded by a 25-14 margin.
Grit and toughness were still allies of the Cardinals when the second stanza started up as Plattsburgh State began a 7-0 run with a triple off the hand of Shamoy McIntosh. Perez added a layup before McIntosh finished off the run with a pair of swishes from the foul stripe.
The Lord Jeffs, though, answered right back with a 9-0 run of their own featuring triples by Toomey and Tom Killian to push the edge back to 22 – the largest lead of the tilt.
For the remainder of the one-sided game, the closest the Cardinals would come to the lead was 16 points away. That occurred when Thomas capped a 4-0 Plattsburgh State spurt with an acrobatic layup the made matters 72-56 with 7:47 to go.
Correa, Hodgson and McIntosh added 11 points apiece for the Cardinals who shot 23-of-66 (34.8-percent) during the game. It also marked the final appearance in a Plattsburgh State uniform for Anthony Baker, Fields and Manning.
Fields wraps up his career with 991 points while Perez closed his collegiate days with 981 points.
