MEN'S BASKETBALL PUNCHES TICKET TO GNAC TOURNEY WITH 78-66 WIN OVER LASELL
Newton, Mass. – With a playoff berth on the line for next week’s Great Northeast Athletic Conference tournament, the Emmanuel College men’s basketball team punched its ticket with a 78-66 victory over Lasell College Thursday evening. The win for the Saints locked in the No. 8 seed in the GNAC tournament as they improve to 5-12 in conference play and 5-19 overall while the loss drops the Lasers to 6-19 and 5-13 in GNAC play.
Newton, Mass. – With a playoff berth on the line for next week's Great Northeast Athletic Conference tournament, the Emmanuel College men's basketball team punched its ticket with a 78-66 victory over Lasell College Thursday evening. The win for the Saints locked in the No. 8 seed in the GNAC tournament as they improve to 5-12 in conference play and 5-19 overall while the loss drops the Lasers to 6-19 and 5-13 in GNAC play. With the victory, EC now holds the head to head tie-breaker over the Lasers with two GNAC victories on the 2012-13 campaign.
Senior Xavier Everson (Rochester, NY) registered a double-double as he lead Emmanuel with a game-high 30 points and 10 rebounds. It is the second straight 30 point game for Everson and his 20th consecutive game in which he's scored in double figures. Fellow seniors Connor Morgan (Gloucester, R.I.) and Michael Mailhot (Norwich, Conn.) contributed to the winning effort as each scored 15 and 12 points respectively for the Saints.
Sophomore Angel Ortiz (East Lyme, Conn.) led Lasell with 18 points while junior Chris Canino (Hartford, Conn) tallied another double-double with 11 points and 10 boards in the season finale for the Lasers.
The Lasers and Saints opened the half by exchanging the share of the lead until the 12-minute mark, when Everson made a layup to give Emmanuel the 13-11 lead. The Saints controlled the action for the remainder of the opening stanza, in building a 10 point cushion at the break. Everson ended the half with 15 points of Emmanuel's 36 points as Lasell went into the half trailing 36-26.
Trailing 41-31 with just under 17 minutes to play, Lasell rallied with an 8-0 spurt behind triples from Brock Walters (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Ortiz to cut the visitors lead to 41-39 with 15:21 remaining in the game. Following an Emmanuel timeout a Morgan trifecta gave the Saints a five point cushion and ignited a 12-0 run that left the hosts trailing 53-39 with 11:16 left in the contest. Lasell continued to push, cutting their deficit to 73-65 on a pair of free throws by Ricky Landais (Fall River, Mass.) with 32 seconds to play, but were unable to claw their way any closer, falling 78-66.
Emmanuel's will be back in action Saturday as they close out their season at home against Norwich University at 1:00 pm. Prior to the start of the game, the Emmanuel Athletic Department will honor Everson, Morgan and Mailhot during a brief senior day ceremony.
*Release courtesy of Lasell College Sports Information