GRANTHAM, Pa. – Sophomore Eric Williams Jr. continued his scorching start to the season on Saturday, shooting the Ursinus College men's basketball team to a hard-fought 67-60 victory over home standing Messiah in the championship game of the TownePlace Suites Tip-Off.
Williams Jr. scored 14 of his game-high 20 points in the second half for Ursinus (2-0), making all four of his 3-point attempts and delivering a pair of daggers to help the visitors silence the home crowd and come back to Collegeville with a trophy in tow. The sharpshooter finished 6-of-7 from downtown, his third career game with at least six 3-pointers, and is 10-of-13 from beyond the arc on the season.
Ursinus is 2-0 for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
Junior Brian Rafferty finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists for the Bears, while senior Matt Knowles collected 12 points and four assists and junior Remi Janicot registered a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Janicot now has 15 career double-digit rebounding games, more than any other active player in the conference.
Ursinus shot 59.1 percent from the field (13 of 22) and needed every bit of it against a Messiah (2-1) squad that hung tough at every turn. The Falcons trailed just 55-53 after a layup with 3:45 to play, but Williams Jr. made sure the Bears never faltered. Williams Jr. drained a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to five, then added another trey two trips later to make it 61-53 and ice the game with just over two minutes left.
The Bears fell behind 24-20 late in the first half, but a 16-0 spurt spanning the halftime break put them ahead to stay. Rafferty's three-point play tied it at 24, and two free throws from Janicot gave Ursinus a two-point lead heading into intermission.
The momentum didn't stop there, as junior Zach Quattro sandwiched a jumper and a 3-pointer around another triple by Williams Jr. to make it 34-24, and a layup by Janicot swelled the margin to a dozen before Nate Eberle stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer that ended a nearly five-minute scoring drought for Messiah.
Eberle led the Falcons with 12 points, with Clippinger tacking on 11 and Luke Cable 10. Ursinus held the Bears to 32.3-percent shooting for the night.
Rafferty was 8-of-9 at the line and Janicot made all four of his attempts for Ursinus, which went 16-for-19 at the charity stripe. Janicot's double-double was the eighth of his career.
The Bears committed 20 turnovers, but made up for it by making 9 of their 16 3-point attempts in addition to their stellar performance at the line.
The men's basketball team opens the Centennial Conference season at Haverford on Tuesday, November 22 at 8:00 p.m.