SALEM, Mass. — The Endicott men's basketball team downed the Regis (Mass.) College Pride, 79-67, Friday night inside Twohig Gymnasium as part of the Salem St. Holiday Classic as head coach Kevin Bettencourt earned his 50th career coaching victory in his third season at the helm.
A back-and-forth affair early on lent itself to the Pride being up by as much as six with 2:24 remaining in the opening stanza, but the Gulls regained the lead and managed a 33-29 edge at the halftime break.
Endicott then built a lead as large as 14 with 11:43 to play before Regis chipped away down the stretch to bring the score within three (58-55 at 6:03), but was unable to overcome the Gulls' second half surge.
Freshman guard Keith Brown (Pelham, N.H.) scored a career-high 15 points off the bench to lead the Gulls in scoring, as he hit 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- The Gulls placed five student-athletes in double figures as senior guard Max Motroni (West Warwick, R.I.), senior guard Kamahl Walker (Worcester, Mass.), senior guard Drew Sawyer (Norwalk, Conn.), and senior forward Chris Lipscomb (West Springfield, Mass.) joined Brown in the double-digit scoring column with 13, 12, 12, and 11 points respectively.
- Senior forward Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
- Walker dished out a game-high seven assists to match his season-high total.
- Walker currently has made 501 career field goals, as his 5-of-11 showing from the floor tonight helped him move into third all-time, surpassing John Henault '15.
- Walker also jumped Henault '15 for fourth all-time in career field goals attempted, with 1,100 to his name to date.
- 12 points is a season-high for Sawyer.
- Endicott produced a season-high 22 assists in the victorious effort.
FOR THE FOES
- The Pride also had five student-athletes in double figures, headlined by sophomore guard Ademola Afonja's (Staten Island, N.Y.) double-double of a tied-for-game-high 15 points and a floor-best 11 rebounds.
- Senior forward Sam Jean-Gilles (Melrose, Mass.) (13 points, team-high six assists) and senior forward Jaiwon Martin (Coral Springs, Fla.) (11 points) were joined in double digits with 10 points apiece from senior forward Chris Leak Jr. (New Haven, Conn.) and sophomore guard Jordan Seldon (Everett, Mass.).
- Regis has lost three games in a row.
NOTES
- Endicott is 3-2 in the all-time series against the Pride, dating back to the 2008 season.
- Regis won the most recent meeting before today, 68-63, in Beverly, Mass. on 02/05/2011.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott (8-2, 3-0 CCC) is off until the Gulls open 2017 by welcoming Wentworth Institute of Technology to Beverly, Mass. on Tuesday, January 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Regis (3-6,1-1 NECC) is inactive until the Pride ring in 2017 with a home contest against UMass Boston on Tuesday, January 3 at 5:00 p.m. For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.