The two-time defending CCC champs who earned the No. 2 seed in the North Division of the CCC with a record of 13-3 are looking to join the Endicott softball and women's soccer teams as just the third Endicott program to earn three straight CCC crowns.
The Gulls, who have been to the finals three years in a row, finished the season 16-9 while the Colonels clinched the third seed in the South Division by way of their 10-6 record. Curry was 13-12 overall but has one big advantage heading into Tuesday night's game. The Colonels are one of three CCC teams to get the best of Endicott in the regular season, going away to defeat the Gulls, 80-79, in overtime.
Endicott played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in all of Division III basketball which included three D3Hoops.com Top 25 teams and three New England Small Colleges Athletic Conference teams. The Gulls were just 5-6 entering Christmas break, but climbed to the top of the CCC in January, reeling off seven straight wins.
Endicott was the best team in the CCC in field goal percentage (.496), field goal percentage defense (.395), rebounding defense (29.6) and rebounding margin (+6.8). The Gulls ranked second in three-point percentage (.403), blocks per game (3.75) and third in both scoring offense per game (69.0) and scoring defense per game (59.2).
Endicott was led by a pair of 1,000-point scorers in senior Matt George (Dover, NH/Dover) and junior Nemanja Marinkovic (Belgrade, Serbia & Montenegro/Second Baptist School, TX) plus long range shooter Zach Ellis (Westford, MA/Westford Academy) - a career 39 percent three-point shooter who is 74 points away from joining George and Marinkovic.
Marinkovic, George and Ellis are among the top scorers in the league, providing a lethal combination of inside and outside scoring. Marinkovic is the catalyst in the paint, averaging 8.3 rebounds per game, Ellis is among the best three-point shooters in the conference and George has the ability to beat you on the perimeter and in the box. George's 1.10 assist to turnover ratio is in the top 10 of the CCC and he averages 1.73 steals.
George was a one-man wrecking crew in the final three games of the season, averaging 22 points in the final three games, including a game-high 29 in a win over Roger Williams, to earn CCC Player of the Week honors.
In a playoff-clinching week, the guard shot 89 percent from the free-throw stripe, 61 percent from the field and 53 percent from long range. George dished out 4.3 assists over the three games and collected 5.3 rebounds to guide the two-time defending conference champions to a No. 2 seed in the North Division.
The Gulls had a player named to the CCC Honor Roll in each of the first 10 weekly reports, but could never earn the Player of the Week honors until this week. George, Marinkovic and Ellis will have to bring everything they have to table if Endicott wants to three-peat, but the supporting cast is equally important.
Junior forward Mike Sullivan (Marshfield, MA/Marshfield) and sophomore point guard Todd Burton (Lynn, MA/St. Mary's) round out the EC starters while sophomore guard Gary Corbett (Danbury, CT/Danbury) is the starting point for head coach Chris Millette's young but talented bench. Corbett is a pure shooter who thrives in the sixth man role.
Freshmen forwards Joey Burgos (Lawrence, MA/Lawrence) and Franic Mayi (Lawrence, MA/Lawrence) are both great shot blockers while freshmen JM Ramsey (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan Academy) and Brandon Diaz (Hartford, CT/Northwest Catholic) bolster the backcourt.
The playoffs will continue Thursday and culminate in the CCC Championship Saturday afternoon.
