The men’s basketball team relied on a core group from the Class of 2014 for each of the past two seasons and will need to redefine itself this year without the group of seven seniors leading the way.

The team graduated seven of its eight leading scores and the Judges’ top four scorers, including All-University Athletic Association second-team guard Gabriel Moton ’14. Moton led the squad with 15.7 points in 27.3 minutes per game, starting in 22 of the team’s 24 games while pulling down 5.6 rebounds and dishing out 2.7 assists per game.

Without Moton and the rest of the Class of 2014, the squad will need to look elsewhere on both sides of the ball and will turn primarily to guard Robinson Vilmont ’17 in his second year on the court.

He averaged 6.5 points per game as a first-year, starting in 17 of the Judges’ contests last year. The guard averaged 18.4 minutes per game last year—the most of any non-senior on the squad—and shot 45.3 percent from the field. Vilmont scored in double figures six times and netted a season-high 15 points in an 87-62 victory over Carnegie Mellon University on Feb. 9 at home.

The Judges raced out to a perfect 3-0 record to begin the season last November and completed a strong first quarter of the season, earning an 8-3 record in non-conference play over the first 11 games. 

The team began the year by winning five of their first six games and topped 100 points twice in their first three games.

However, once the UAA games began in January, the squad’s consistency was tested, twice slogging through three-game losing streaks to conference opponents. The team’s first UAA victory came against the University of Rochester on Jan. 24, an 83-66 drubbing of the Yellowjackets, during which the team put three of the five starters in double figures. The victory broke a three-game losing streak for the Judges, but the team could not convert it into a winning streak as they dropped their next three games as well.

The squad split its last eight games—including wins over Case Western Reserve University, Carnegie, the University of Chicago and New York University—but was never able to win more than two UAA contests in a row.

The squad finished with the third-best offense in the UAA, scoring 77.6 points per game in conference games, a shade below their 79.8 average for the year. The squad, however, was plagued by the inconsistencies of the offense and stumbled to a 5-9 conference record, leaving them sixth in the conference standings at the end of the year.

Even with the below-average conference record, the squad entered the final game of the season on March 4 at 12-12 overall, looking to avenge an earlier-season loss to NYU. The Judges opened their conference slate with a 64-58 loss to the Violets on Jan. 11, but could not compete with the UAA’s second-leading scorer, NYU sophomore forward Evan Kupferberg, who earned All-UAA First Team honors last year.

The Judges wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in the season finale, opening the game on an 11-2 run over the first three minutes, punctuated by a three-pointer made by guard Derek Retos ’14. Retos, who was one of three seniors to score at least 20 points in the finale, concluded his collegiate career with a school-record 231 three-pointers.

The squad continued their offensive outburst with a 47-point first half against NYU and secured a winning-record on the season with a 92-53 victory over the Violets. With the victory, the squad clinched their 10th-straight winning season and will look to make it 11-straight this year.

The squad opens its campaign with a home game on Nov. 19 versus UMass Dartmouth, beginning at 7 p.m.