Smith banked in a 65-foot shot at the buzzer, completing Widener's rally from a 16-point, second-half deficit for an astonishing 71-70 Commonwealth Conference victory over LVC at Schwartz Center.
Widener (9-6, 4-1 CC) used a 17-4 run to turn a 51-35 deficit with 14:49 left into a 55-52 shortfall with 8:10 to go. Freshman
Bob Makor (Philadelphia, PA) scored six points in that spurt, capping it on a fast-break dunk.
The score remained close the rest of the way, but things looked lost when Anthony Trautman hit a huge 3-pointer to give the Dutchmen a 65-60 lead with 1:19 left. After junior
Perry Wright (Severn, MD) missed a jumper for the Pride, Joe Meehan hit twice from the line with 46 seconds to go for a 67-60 margin.
Smith drilled a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left for a 67-63 contest that preceded a steal by Wright, who made 1-of-2 from the line with 25 seconds to go for a three-point game.
Trautman canned 1-of-2 from the stripe with 17 seconds remaining for a 68-64 game before senior
Chris McDevitt (Doylestown, PA) buried 1-of-2 with 11 seconds left to once again make it a three-point game.
Trautman came through again with 9.6 seconds left, hitting twice from the line for a 70-65 game. But Widener was far from through as Smith canned a tough 3-pointer from the left corner with 2.3 seconds to go for a two-point game.
Before the ball was inbounded, Smith fouled Meehan and that gave the Dutchmen (9-6, 1-4) a chance to ice the contest.
In last year's game, Sam Diaz missed the front end of a one-and-one, senior
Jarrell Nelson (Waldorf, MD) grabbed the rebound and Smith hit a 35-foot runner at the buzzer for a 66-65 win. Click
here for a trip down memory lane.
Fast forward to this year as Meehan missed twice from the stripe and Nelson corralled the rebound. Nelson gave the ball on the right side to Smith, who flung one which banked in for Widener's third lead of the game and first since 8-7 with 14:24 left in the first half.
Smith scored 16 points for the second straight game and Brennan had 16 and nine rebounds for the Pride, who shot 49 percent (16-of-33) from the floor in the second half. McDevitt and Wright scored nine points apiece.
Meehan scored 27 points and Trautman netted 20 for the Dutchmen, who shot only 10-for-16 from the line in the second half and 14-for-23 overall.
Widener hits the road Wednesday to visit Alvernia for an 8:00 pm start.
