NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The New England College men's basketball team was not able to recover from a big first-half spurt by Albertus Magnus College on Saturday afternoon at the Cosgrove Marcus Messer Athletic Center in New Haven, Connecticut in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action in their season finale.  

THE BASICS 
Score: New England College 51, Albertus Magnus College 87 
Records: Pilgrims 4-21, 1-13 GNAC | 21-4, 13-1 GNAC 

 
TURNING POINTS 

• Albertus Magnus started the game red-hot from the floor with a 33-7 opening run just before the 10-minute mark had hit. Senior guard Antonio Bonilla (Tenafly, N.J.) led the charge for the Falcons to a 58-25 lead going into halftime as he put in 18 points with all his shots coming from the arc where he went 6/9. 
• With no runs of their own in half number one, sophomore guard Junior Efosa (Haverhill, Mass.) was the only efficient one in scoring as he dropped in seven points while going 3/5 from the field including a three-pointer. 
• The second half consisted of both teams trading buckets with sophomore guard Tazhon Daniels (New Haven, Conn.) giving Albertus Magnus a 29-26 edge in the final 20 minutes of regulation to give the Falcons a convincing 87-51 victory going into postseason play. 

• The 'Grims went to their bench substantially in half number two where freshman guard Shawn O'Keefe (Salem, Mass.) contributed six points, going 3/6 from the field. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 

• NEC's Efosa was the team's leading scorer with nine points, going 3/7 shooting along with four rebounds. O'Keefe ended his performance with eight points on 4/7 from the field. 
• Albertus Magnus was led by Bonilla with the 18 points that all came in the first half of the game. Senior guard Kevin Crawford (Bridgeport, Conn.) finished with 14 points on an efficient 4/5 shooting. 
• The Falcons were sharing the rock with no problem as they attributed 27 assists on their 31 field goals compared to the 'Grims' 10 assists on 15 made field goals. 
• Albertus Magnus won the edge in the rebounding battle 43-40. 
• NEC ended the loss with 23.8/13.0/60.0% splits while the Falcons finished on 52.5/39.3/60.9% splits. 

UP NEXT 

• This marks the end of the 2023-24 season for NEC men's basketball. Congratulations to the whole team on their season! 
• Albertus Magnus locks in the #2 seed for the GNAC Tournament as they will host their next game in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, February 20th with tipoff time to be determined. 

For continuing coverage of New England College Athletics, visit athletics.nec.edu and follow the Pilgrims on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.