By Nick Pantages
Western New England forward Tim Restall stepped up to the free throw line, with the Golden Bears trailing Springfield College 75-74. The noise into his left ear was deafening screams from the Springfield fans, doing anything to get him to miss the free throws.
His first shot softly rolled around the rim before dropping in, and the second free throw hit nothing except the bottom of the net.
Coach Michael McClendon called timeout, with 10.3 seconds showing on the game clock, shot clock turned off. He put the ball in John Paulino’s hands.
Paulino started right before rejecting a ball screen and reversing the ball to Xoren Livingston. Livingston immediately attacked off the catch, before attempting to finish through heavy contact over the Western New England defense. His shot hit the glass and looked like it had a chance, but kareemed out off the rim, and there was not a whistle to be heard from the referees.
McClendon’s pleas were not entertained by the referees, who scurried off the court to the dismay of the Pride and their fans. An early contender for game of the year was over, 76-75, in favor of the Golden Bears over the Pride.
“I drew the play up for him because I know if he can get downhill he can hit a mid range or get to the rim — which he did,” McClendon said.
The game started very chippy between the two teams, with various members of each team jawing at each other in an initial scuffle. Just a second after the game had resumed, Western New England’s former CCC Player of the Year, Jake Harrison, was hit with a technical foul after saying something in the direction of the Springfield bench.
The Pride harnessed most of the game’s intensity in their favor in the first half, excelling in their transition offense. The Golden Bears held a pretty significant size advantage over the Pride, but were able to neutralize that with hot shooting from behind the arc and a lethal attack in transition.
That was led primarily by graduate transfer Jarron Flynn, who turned a number of steals with feisty perimeter defense into layups and dunks on the other end.
“Defensively, he is a good, good guy in the gaps,” McClendon said. “He anticipates, his instincts are great, and when you play a high level of basketball for a long time and now you are a grad, the game is a lot easier.”
Despite at one point holding a 13 point lead, Western New England whittled that lead down to two points with just over a minute left in the first half, but good free throw shooting from Paulino and first-year Hunter Matteson, capped off by a Flynn transition slam, gave the Pride a nine-point lead at the break.
On the first possession after the break, Curtis Blische, the Pride’s starting center and one of the focal points of their offense, picked up his third foul 22 seconds into the second half. His backup, Josh Hartley, had three fouls in the first half, forcing McClendon to trust his two senior bigs to play without fouling.
This stretch however, is when Flynn truly introduced himself to the packed crowd at Blake Arena. He used his supreme athleticism and lightning quick first step to get to the rim at will, scoring eight straight points for the Pride, including what might have been the highlight play of the season. He attacked in transition, slowing down for a split second and freezing Western New England big man Luka Vlajkovic, before rising up for a powerful dunk right over the flatfooted big man, igniting the crowd.
“He’s played a ton of basketball at a high level in the NESCAC at Connecticut College, so he gets it. He’s a gamer,” McClendon said. “He has this quick twitch about him that allows him to get by guys and get to the rim.”
During this sequence however, Western New England and Restall, the graduate forward who came back to play his final season of eligibility, crept back into the game. Just past the halfway mark of the second half, Blische picked up his fourth foul, leaving McClendon with his two upperclassmen centers, Blische and Hartley, with four apiece.
Less than a minute later, following an and-one layup by Restall and a charge by Blische, the Pride’s top two centers were both fouled out, and McClendon had to manage playing the last nine minutes with an undersized Josiah Evely and inexperienced Matteson at center.
“It’s tough, especially when they start to go big, then go small,” McClendon said. “But that’s the game, that’s the chess match that coaches play. But our freshman Hunter comes in, gives us 7, 8 good minutes, knocks down all four free throws. I think that was pretty surreal for him”
The two teams alternated buckets before the stretch run, until Livingston got hot. He was ice cold after the first couple minutes of the game, but his next points came in a flurry, scoring a quick seven points to help Springfield build a six point lead.
“These kids, what I love about them is they are resilient,” McClendon said. “He missed a few, shot 5-18, but we know [we can count on him] when we need a bucket.”
The rest of the game was back and forth, nonstop action. After cutting the lead down, Vlajkovic hit a free throw and a layup to give WNE a lead, before Zander Robinson claimed the lead back with a silky floater.
After coming back from foul trouble, Harrison scored a clutch bucket off the offensive glass to take the lead.
Flynn had one more magic moment in him, knifing through the Golden Bears defense before dropping off a beautiful pass to Matteson to take a 75-74 lead, his fifth assist of the night to go along with 24 points, both team highs for Flynn.
On the other end, Flynn fouled Restall, resulting in his own fifth foul. He was forced to watch as Restall sank the two free throws, his 20th and 21st points of the second half, and as Livingston’s controversial last shot was unsuccessful and deemed legal defense by the referees.
It was a similar story to last year’s opening day thriller, where fouls soiled an upset bid by the Pride.
Their fourth straight loss to their rivals drops Springfield to 0-1 on the season, and they take on Yeshiva for the first time in program history on Nov. 12 in New York City.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Athletics.