Clinton, NY – Senior Elson Pickering (Brooklyn, NY) scored just six points Saturday afternoon, but the first two were enough to get the big forward to 1,000 points in his career as he and the rest of the Clarkson University Men’s Basketball team were able to celebrate the milestone in style in a 64-52 win over Hamilton College.
The victory for the Golden Knights moved the team to 13-10 overall and 6-6 in conference play while Hamilton dropped to 9-13 and 5-7 in conference games. The win also clinched the first-ever season sweep of the Continentals by Clarkson since the two teams started playing home-away conference games. Clarkson is also guaranteed at least a .500 record this season, marking the first time that the program has posted back-to-back successful seasons since 1963.
The win leaves Clarkson at 6-6 and in fifth-place in the conference behind a three-way tie for first (Skidmore, St. Lawrence, and Union) at 8-4 and Hobart at 7-5. The Knights need to sweep next weekend and get some help from a few other teams in the conference to aid in the tie-breaking procedures to reach the post-season. If Clarkson loses one game next weekend, its chances for a playoff spot are virtually non-existent as the team would have to hope for some oddball tie-breakers among teams that might have records of 7-7.
In similar fashion to the first match up between the two teams, the Knights and Continentals slugged away at one another without much offensive damage. The two teams were tied 4-4 through the first minutes, but another four minutes would pass before either would score again. When Jonathan Hood (Cortlandt Manor, NY) scored with 10:54 remaining to make the score 6-4 in favor of Clarkson, it began a run for the Knights that saw them hold on to an advantage for the remainder of the half. When the buzzer sounded at the conclusion of the first period, Clarkson held a six-point lead, 23-17, which wasn’t much different than the first meeting (Clarkson led at the half, 25-15, on January 29th).
Hood led all scorers with nine points and six rebounds for Clarkson, while Brandon Linton (Queens, NY) added seven points and three assists. Jay Simpson paced Hamilton with seven points.
Following a 3-pointer from Eric Benvenuti, Hamilton closed the gap to one point at 28-27, but the Continentals would never be that close again. Clarkson spent little time trying to make shots from the perimeter, instead driving to the basket for layups and pounding the ball inside to forward Hood, George Koduah (Accra, Ghana) and Pickering. The strategy proved sound as the Knights slowly built their lead to double digits with six minutes to go in the game. Clarkson was able to maintain the advantage despite some charges by the Continentals, coming away with a key league victory.
Linton finished with a team-high 20 points, shooting 9-for-11 from the free throw line and 5-for-9 from the floor, along with five assists. Hood ended the game with 16 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Keith Murray (Queens, NY) had 7 points and 7 rebounds and Pickering added 6 points and 6 boards. Clarkson shot better than 50 percent for the floor for the first time in 20 games.
For Hamilton, Jay Simpson scored 22 points and Pat Sullivan contributed 13 points and 9 rebounds.
