WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Williams College men's basketball team (6-5) Monday improved to 4-1 at home with a 78-55 win over the Fitchburg State Falcons (6-6).

 

Matt Karpowicz led the way for the Ephs with 19 points.

 

"It was good to see the guys just come out and play hard tonight," Williams coach Kevin App said. "If we keep doing that and building habits, good stuff happens."

 

The Falcons jumped out to a 9-0 lead to begin the game thanks to seven points from Nicholas Tracy. The Ephs then went on a run of their own, and two free throws from Mike Myers tied the game at 11 with 13:24 left in the first half.

 

Williams continued to put the clamps on defensively, holding Fitchburg scoreless for almost 10 minutes. The Ephs took their first double-digit lead of the game at 28-17 when Jovan Jones found Karpowicz for a two-handed slam with 4:40 to go in the half. Fitchburg State then scored on their next possession, but Karpowicz finished his third dunk of the game on the other end.

 

Williams took a 37-27 lead into the break behind 10 points from Karpowicz and seven from Cole Prowitt-Smith. The Ephs shot 12-26 (46%) from the field in the half.

 

The Ephs now enter NESCAC play, and face off against Hamilton on Friday at 7 p.m in their first conference matchup of the season.

 

“We’ve played a pretty strong schedule so far we feel, and we know all of NESCAC is talented basketball players and well coached teams — it doesn’t really matter where you’re playing or who you’re playing in the league,” App said. “We’ll learn from this one and hopefully build on it, but this is the fun part of the year where every weekend you’re playing really tough teams. It’s going to be another year where everybody can beat everybody and you have to play at as high an intensity level as possible and hope to come out on top.”