Hamilton College's Peter Hoffmann '19 tied a season high with 19 points and the Continentals posted a 78-64 non-conference win against the Bard College Raptors at Hamilton's Margaret Bundy Scott Field House on Saturday afternoon.
Box Score
The Continentals (6-3 overall) have won all five meetings with Bard. The game featured 68 fouls and 89 free-throw attempts, and three players from each team fouled out.
Hoffmann, who is ranked 13th in the NESCAC with 14.1 points per game, also blocked three shots before he fouled out. He has scored in double figures in all but one of Hamilton's nine games.
Jack Dwyer '18 chipped in 18 points for the Continentals. Michael Grassey '19 recorded his first collegiate double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. Andrew Groll '19 contributed eight points and 10 boards. Hamilton grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and finished with a 53-30 advantage on the glass.
The Raptors' Emmanuel Rainey led all players with 22 points as Rainey made four shots from beyond the arc. Harry Johnson and DeVahnte Mosley dropped in 11 points apiece and Armando Dunn blocked four shots. Bard was just 18-for-42 (42.9 percent) at the free-throw line.
The Raptors (3-4) led 32-29 at the break but the Continentals opened the second half with a 14-4 run and Hamilton led the rest of the way. Groll and Dwyer started the spurt with layups before Rainey nailed a 3-pointer that put Bard back in front, 35-33.
The Continentals' Karl Koster '18 tied the score with a basket in the paint and the score was still deadlocked at 36 after the teams traded one free throw apiece. Hoffmann's 3-point play put Hamilton in front for good at 39-36 with 14:39 left. Grassey ended the run with four straight free throws for a 43-36 cushion with 13:14 to go.
About three minutes later, the Continentals went up by double digits for the first time on a jumper by Ajani Santos '16 that made it 51-40. Hamilton led by at least 10 points for the rest of the afternoon with one brief exception with 5:46 remaining when the Raptors trailed 59-50 for two seconds. The Continentals opened up their largest lead of 17 points at 78-61 in the final minute on a Dwyer layup.
Groll had eight rebounds and all eight points in the second half, and Grassey scored all 10 of his points after halftime. Hamilton shot 50 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes.
Neither team led by more than six points in a first half that had four ties and four lead changes. Bard ended the half with two baskets by Mosley and another by Rainey that turned a three-point deficit into a three-point edge. Johnson scored all 11 of his points in the first 20 minutes. The Raptors shot 50 percent from the field in the first half.
The Continentals are off for finals and the holidays until Dec. 29 when they take on the University of Southern Maine in Phoenix. The game starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Bard plays Augsburg in the Puerto Rico Classic on Saturday, Dec. 19.
