FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – In a back-and-forth contest that featured 14 lead changes and eight ties, the game came down to a Jevon Santos three with two seconds remaining that won it late for Farmingdale State, 73-70, over the Wesleyan men's basketball team. The Cardinals (4-1) suffer their first defeat of the season while the Rams are now 5-1 on the season.
For the final 12:07 of this contest, neither side led by more than three points as the Cardinals and Rams traded blows until the very end. Farmingdale State had built a 10-point lead 4:36 into the second half before Wesleyan rattled off a 11-0 run over a span of 3:15 to take their first lead of the stanza.
Jared Langs '25 converted in the lane on consecutive trips to star the run, then
Shane Regan '25 followed with a pair of buckets before
Jackson Cormier '26 nailed a three-pointer to force a Farmingdale State timeout.
From that point forward, it was a highly-competitive affair wherein the two sides couldn't gain separation from one another.
Fritz Hauser '26 and
Nicky Johnson '25 connected on three-pointers on back-to-back trips, building a three-pointer lead, but the Rams held their ground and got a three of their own from Nick Hurowitz to retake the advantage.
Johnson connected again from deep, giving the Cardinals the lead back, and
Sam Pohlman '26 followed with a driving layup with 2:42 remaining that made it 68-65 Cardinals. After Hurowitz hit again from three to tie the score, Langs grabbed a Regan miss and went back up for two points, as Wesleyan led 70-68 with 1:30 left.
Farmingdale State tied the score on second chance points from Corey Powell and after Johnson missed from three, the hosts had the ball with less than 30 seconds remaining. After a miss from Hurowitz, Jovayne Walters grabbed the offensive board and kicked back out for Santos who held at the top before ultimately making the game-winning step-back three-pointer with two ticks on the clock. All Wesleyan could muster after a timeout was a heave from Johnson that went begging as the Rams pulled out a win in a thriller coming off Thanksgiving break.
Wesleyan struggled to get much point, shooting just 36 percent from the floor, benefitting largely from 11 three-point makes despite hitting just 33.3 percent of their attempts from long range. The Cardinals came out strong in the first half, building a 10-point lead of their own, but the Rams got to the line 11 times (making nine) compared to just two free throw makes for the Cardinals in the opening half. Both teams shot less than 37 percent in the second half but the free throw line loomed large as the Rams hit 9-of-11 compared to 3-of-4 for Wesleyan. For the game, the Rams went 18-for-22 while the Cardinals went just 5-for-8.
Langs was at his best on Saturday, registering a career-high 20 points to go along with nine rebounds and three blocks in just 25 minutes. Langs extended out to the three-point line, hitting 2-of-4 from deep, giving him his first career game with more than one three-point make.
Cole Bryant '25 came off the bench and scored a career-high 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and 3-of-8 from three. This is Bryant's first career double-digit point game.
The Cardinals are back in action on Tuesday night as Wesleyan plays host to Worcester State at 7 PM for the first home game of the season for Wesleyan. This also starts a series of four straight home games for the Cardinals.
