NASHUA, N.H. – The Endicott men's basketball saw their early season unbeaten streak come to an end on Saturday in the Rivier Invitational Championship game as they were defeated 86-83 by the host Raiders in Muldoon Gymnasium. Endicott, now 4-1 after setting a program record by going 4-0 to start the season for the first time ever, has 10 days off until they open up Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play with a rivalry game with Gordon on Wednesday, December 4th at 7:30 pm in Wenham, Massachusetts.
Tied 70-70 with in the second half, Endicott fell victim to an 8-0 run by Rivier that put the Gulls in a 78-70 hole with five and a half minutes left on the clock. Endicott battled back to tie the game at 81-81 with 1:01 remaining after a Taylor Rioux (Ivoryton, Conn.) layup. After a timeout, the Raiders grabbed a timely offensively rebound and put back by Nick Walch (Dedham, Mass.) to take the lead but Endicott tied the game once again on free throws by junior guard John Henault (Lunenburg, Mass.).
With 1.4 seconds on the clock, Rivier threw a desperation inbounds pass to hit a fall away go-ahead three-pointer off the hand of Jake Nelson (Nashua, N.H.) at the buzzer to win the game 86-83. Endicott suffered their first loss of the season.
Henault scored a team-high 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor, 2-of-5 from three-point range, and 7-of-9 at the free throw line. He added three rebounds, an assist, a block, and a steal. Junior forward Andre Makris (Southbury, Conn.) dropped 18 points with three rebounds, three assists, and two blocks while both Rioux and fellow freshman Max Motroni (West Warwick, R.I.) both added 11 points each.
Off the bench, freshman Kamahl Walker (Worcester, Mass.) had a game-high three steals. Senior Greg Jacques (Brockton, Mass.) matched Makris for a game-high three assists.
Rivier was led by Walch with 23 points while both Kywane Thomas (Hartford, Conn.) and Tom Poitras (Bow, N.H.) eclipsed 20 points with 21 and 20, respectively.
Endicott shot 45% from the field, 35.3% from three-point range (6-of-17), and 83% at the free throw line (29-of-35).
