Days after falling to Albertus Magnus on a buzzer-beating three-pointer, the Emerson men’s basketball team eyed redemption in a Saturday showdown against Worcester State University.
The Lions got on the board early, as senior guard Lucas Brenner buried a three-pointer eight seconds into the game. Graduate guard Trevor Arico split free throws to give Emerson a 4-0 lead with under 18 minutes left, but then came Worcester State. The Lancers sprinted to a 14-0 run to dominate most of the first half. Junior guard Jacob Armant’s three-pointer brought the Lions within 10, 25-15, with 9:30 left, but the Lancers remained in control. He drained another three after his defender slipped, bringing the score to 33-23 with 6:33 remaining. As Worcester State continued to distance themselves—leading by as many as 16—the Lions trailed 46-32 at halftime.
Emerson chipped away in the second half just as they did on Wednesday. Arico buried a three-pointer at the 18:16 mark to get the deficit within eight, 48-40. The deficit remained in single digits as junior center Linus Helmhold made a layup with 13 minutes to play, doing the “too small” celebration on his defender as the Lancers led 53-46. After two-pointers from sophomore forward Caden Zurek and Armant, first-year guard Hank Gramlich scored his first points of the game on a clutch three-pointer. Worcester State saw its lead trimmed to two, 55-53, with 11:33 left in the game.
The Lions took a 56-55 lead off of Zurek free throws with ten minutes to play. They continually traded baskets with the Lancers, who refused to back down. The Lions led 78-72 following layups from Helmhold and Zurek, but the Lancers eventually made it a three-point game, 80-77, after nailing a deep three with 50 seconds left.
Worcester State missed a three to tie, but grabbed an offensive rebound and settled for two made free throws. Arico made one of two from the line to give Emerson an 81-79 lead with 16 seconds remaining. The Lancers stepped to the line for a chance to tie with five seconds left. With the Brown-Plofker buzzing, they missed both. Gasset-Ruiz grabbed the rebound and did what the Lancers couldn’t, making both of his free-throws with 2.5 seconds left. The Lancers, racing up the court, drained one last three at the buzzer. The Lions, thankfully, were up four.
Emerson escaped with an 83-82 victory behind Armant’s career-high 24 points on eight made field goals and four three-pointers. Arico finished with 14 points on 5/11 shooting from the field, and Brenner buried three perimeter shots en route to 11 points and four assists.
Head coach Bill Curley and Zurek believed Wednesday’s upset lingered in the team’s minds.
“It kind of left us a little more hungry,” Zurek said. “We lost a game we definitely should’ve won, and I think when we were down, it made us push through, made us want it even more.”
“We were still feeling the effects of it, and we were laying it on the line, and I think it took probably more out of us than we thought,” Curley said. “I think it just shows they’ve got heart, first of all. We’ve been down double digits in every game we’ve played so far, but they don’t give up.”
Curley said the halftime adjustments pertained to “effort and energy.”
“We were flat-footed, we had snow shoes on,” he said. “We just had to get after it … We had to be the people that put them on their heels and make them react to us.”
He added that Armant had “a hell of a game.”
“I don’t know if we took him out much today—I don’t think we could,” Curley said. “He just made shots, and we were talking, and he’s got to understand when to go and when not to go, so I think he did a much better [job] today in letting the game come to him … He’s got that ability more than anybody on our team—the ability to get by people and get in the paint and create havoc.”
“I’ve been a scorer my whole life,” Armant said. “On this team, a lot of times, I try to facilitate, but today was just one of those days where I thought being aggressive would give my team the best chance to win, and that’s what I did. I put in the work behind the scenes, so I was confident to do that, too.”
Armant took Wednesday’s loss personally, having only played in the first half before an ankle sprain sidelined him in the second.
“Just having that in the back of my mind, making sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “I had a sleepless night or two about that one.”
Curley also touched on the effort of the first-year Gramlich, who grabbed two rebounds and dished five assists aside from his pivotal three.
“[Hank] is understanding that he doesn’t have to score,” he said. “All he has to do is come in and move the ball where it’s supposed to be, and if it gets back to him and he’s open, okay, then shoot. … Having him in there allowed Jacob to get off the ball a little bit.”
“Can’t say enough about what Hank did, and his toughness and rebounding,” Curley added. “I mean, he’s one of the savviest guys that we’ve had in quite some time. [He’s] just doing these very little things that don’t show up in the box score. He just makes the game easier for everybody else he plays with, and we preach a lot about that.”
Curley also discussed the impact of Zurek, who tallied nine points and five rebounds and was one of the loudest voices in the gym.
“Caden, he’s just a lunatic,” Curley joked. “Caden just has so much passion and fire in him, and really that’s what we didn’t have. He wants to win every possession, he wants to get it, and he’s not getting every ball, but he’s going to get mad if he doesn’t. We needed that energy from him.”
Zurek said his energy begins in practice.
“You’ve got to work hard to play hard,” he said. “I think high energy keeps the game going. It got out of hand for a minute, but we got to have high energy to get us back into the game.”
He added that he’s learned the value of patience heading into year two.
“I think a lot of players get frustrated when their time doesn’t come—I know I went through that last year,” Zurek said. “My time came, and I think so has everyone’s.”
Curley noted that the returning group improved from last year, though the difficulties will come from fitting the new guys in.
“Don’t come in and try to be Superman,” he added. “Just come in and try and do the little things first, and all of a sudden, you’ll get your shots and you’ll get your rebounds. They have to be ready and keep working hard, cause they’re going to be better in a month, in two months, and I think that’s going to help us a lot.”
Armant raved about the new Lions and how they’ve impacted the team so far.
“The new guys have made our team a lot better than last year,” he said. “One in that the culture they bring and buy into, and two, we just have talented guys like Hank and Roman [Leraris] and Giulio Volonte that can also just bring skill sets and play types that we didn’t have before, so they add a lot of value to this team.”
The team takes on rival Suffolk University at the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Armant believes the key to victory lies in focus.
“When we’re playing really good offensively and locked in defensively, we’re a hard team to beat—regardless of who’s on the other sideline,” he said.
One of the faces on that opposing sideline will be Steven Fabrizio ‘23, who is now an assistant coach for the Rams.
“I look forward to seeing Steven,” Armant, one of his former teammates, said. “That’s gonna be some motivation for sure—playing [for] Emerson two years ago, and then go coach right across the street, that’s going to be fun to see him.”
As for how Fabrizio’s former coach feels?
“We don’t mention his name, ever,” Curley joked.
Fabrizio is one of many Emerson alums who have entered the coaching realm after graduating, which Curley believes is “the great thing” about the college.
“That goes back to the guys before we got here, with Hank and what he did,” he said, referring to the impact of former head coach Hank Smith, who led the men’s basketball team from 1994 to 2011. Emerson will rename the court in Smith’s honor in January. “It’s just what they established, and guys know if they want to get into basketball, want division 3 or 2, Emerson’s a great springboard.”
“They’ve laid an incredible foundation for our kids, and they’re trying to carry on that tradition,” Curley added. “They come here because they love basketball, and they want an opportunity to move on—not necessarily playing-wise, but they’re getting there.”
