Box Score HENNIKER, N.H.-The New England College men's basketball team suffered their first loss of the season, falling 82-65 to the Lions of Eastern Nazarene College on Saturday afternoon in non-conference play.
Eastern Nazarene improves to 3-2 with the win, while NEC falls to 3-1.
NEC LEADERS
The Pilgrims received a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds from sophomore
Jason Jones (Roxbury, Mass.). Classmate
Jake Vickery (East Hampton, Conn.) and first-year Izaiah Winston-Brooks (Roxbury, Mass.) both added 11 points apiece, while Rick Leonard (Windsor, Conn.) finished with 10 points.
Point guards
Alonzo Cooper (Hyde Park, Mass.) and
Jack Hostetler (Somers, Conn.) both dished out three assists apiece for NEC.
EASTERN NAZARENE LEADERS
Corey Doran (Fairfield, Calif.) scored a game-high 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting. Christian Lynch (Alpharetta, Ga.) added 17 points, while David Eddings (Endicott, N.Y.) was the team's rebounds leader with 12.
HOW IT HAPPENED
NEC took control early and led by as many as 14 points midway through the first half, but the Lions held them scoreless for the next 4:14 while scoring 14-straight points of their own to tie the game at 27-27 at the 7:28 mark. The Pilgrims briefly regained the lead, but Eastern Nazarene would knot the score three more times before finally taking the lead at 37-35 on a layup by Noah Cheney (Bend, Ore.) with two minutes left in the half. The Lions held a four-point lead at halftime, 41-37.
The Lions controlled the score for the entire second half. NEC strung together a layup by Jones and a three-pointer by Leonard to cut the deficit to one point at 43-42 a minute-and-a-half into the second half, but it would prove to be the closest the Pilgrims got all half.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Eastern Nazarene's last basket with 40 seconds left gave them their largest lead of the game (17 points).
- The Lions scored 56 points in the paint to NEC's 26. Eastern Nazarene also held a 22-15 edge in points off turnovers and a 22-16 advantage in second-chance points.
- The Pilgrims shot season lows in field goal percentage (.360) and total field goals (22). They also attempted a season-high 27 three-pointers.
- The win is the fifth-in-a-row for Eastern Nazarene against NEC. The Pilgrim's last win against the Lions was on February 12th, 2011.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Pilgrims return to action on Monday when they travel to Curry for a 6:00 p.m. non-conference game. NEC will open North Atlantic Conference (NAC) play on Wednesday on a 5:30 p.m. game at Castleton.
