Bobby Martinez – Sports Writer
NEW HAVEN — With under 10 seconds left on the clock, senior, Greg Langston, sank a three-pointer which won the Owls men’s basketball team their first Northeast-10 Conference Championship which forced the blue crew to storm the crowd.
Sophomore forward, Stefon Williams, said this year had numerous high moments but when his team won the NE-10 title alongside the regional championship, he never would’ve thought the fans would react in such a way and to him that was an epic moment.
“The greatest moment was winning the conference title and regional,” said Williams, “but seeing the crowd storm the court the way they did, that was something I would’ve never thought I see at Southern.”
The Owls completed the regular season 24-2 and to Williams, heading into the season he said, they felt as if they were going to be good but to get as far as they did, was a shock.
“It was a great season,” said Williams. “We definitely exceeded any expectations we had as a team. We knew we were going to be good but we didn’t expect to only lose two games going into the elite eight.”
The Owls this season completed the most successful season record wise in school history for the men’s side. Head coach, Michael Donnelly, put a team together that meshed well on and off the court. Junior captain, Tylon Smith, said a lesson he learned this season had nothing to do with basketball but had everything to do with life.
“Embrace and enjoy every moment that life gives you,” said a serious Smith. “Obviously this isn’t guaranteed for us next year and we know that going into off-season and next season. But you can’t take everything for granted and know that there are more important things in life than basketball and we really came together more as a family and to me that changed everything.”
The Owls fell short of a National Title in the elite eight against Central Missouri University who went on to win the NCAA D-II championship by defeating West Liberty University, 84-77. With Langston out next year, Smith said he knows what he needs to work on this off-season in order to become a better captain and player next year.
“I want to get better as a player and also as a leader just like I did last summer,” said Smith. “I want to bring my game to a whole different level because I know my team is going to need it especially with the loss of Greg.”
The season may be months ahead, but Smith said his team has been taking as much time left of the school year to work on each other’s game in preparation for next season.
“Obviously we have to use the time we have at school to learn together and get better heading into the summer,” said Smith. “We will have set goals that will help everyone get better heading into the summer so when we return for next fall we can pick up where we left off.”
The Owls this season suffered two losses overall to both Pace University and Southern New Hampshire University. Earlier in the season, the Owls were limited to players due to NCAA violations. Both sophomore Jack McCarthy and Deshawn Murphy sat out the first five games of the season.
At this time, the Owls were 5-1 and went on to win their next seven games followed by a huge win streak that stretched to 19 games. In those 19 games, the Owls were scoring an average of 87.3 points a game and allowed a shade under 75 points a game.
Williams said he hopes his team can make another run at a title next year and said he understands what his team must do to make it happen.
“We definitely all want to get stronger,” said Williams. “We also want to help out the younger guys and new guys coming in by helping them transition into collegiate basketball. We also expect to be better next season and hopefully we can make it back to the tournament next season and win it all.”
