Utica 72 Babson 60
Fun season comes to an end.
Babson with a 32-30 halftime lead, but the heavy load carried by Nate Amado was not sustainable, with 14 from Nate (and 24 for the game), but just 11 from the other core upperclassmen (Cibull, Gao, and Kirkpatrick). The 2nd Babson scorer at the half was FY Lauder with 7. And FY starter O’Toole ended the half with 4 fouls (even without hindsight, it was stupefying to keep him in while the game was still close).
And naturally the only player to suit up every game this year (Kirkpatrick) got injured in the 1st half, came back when the game was getting away (down 11 with 11 minutes to play), and gave it a go but was not his usual self.
The 3 Jersey home state players had particularly rough nights: Gao (5 on 2/13); Cross (0 for 3); Woolhouse (0). Maybe Jersey jitters.
And the FY foul frenzy put the team in a hole both halves; O’Toole with the aforementioned 1st half, that kept him out until they were down 9 with 12 minutes left (and fouled out in 14 minutes of court time); and FY Woolhouse picked up back-to-back-to-back needless fouls in 30 seconds of court time. These fouls and others put them at the limit too early against a team that was 74 pct. for the season and hit 22/29 tonight.
But take nothing away from Utica. Lots of pure shooters, maybe the best group they faced all year. Grad Hopkins (21 on 8/12) and savvy senior Brantley (14) drawing fouls (12/14 FTs). All can create inside and out. And they hit their FTs.
I can’t get too worked up about this one. On the whole the season exceeded all expectations. Thank you seniors, grad, team, and staff. Keep grinding Babo.
