Feb. 7, 2009
BEVERLY, Mass. - Regis College's Derrick Neal (Boston, Mass.) had 31 points, including 20 in the first half, on 9-of-13 shooting to lead the Pride past the Endicott College Gulls, 80-69, on Saturday afternoon in Beverly, Mass. The loss drops Endicott to 8-13 overall and 3-6 in the TCCC while the Pride improves to 8-12 (2-7 TCCC). The Gulls were led by a double-double from Erik Callo (Southington, Conn.) who had 11 points and 10 rebounds in the setback.
The first half would be a game of runs as Regis jumped out of the gates early, taking a 13-4 lead in the first five minutes on a jumper by Derrick Neal. The Gulls responded quickly with a 7-0 run capped off on a three-pointer by Kevin McGuire (New City, N.Y.) to cut the lead to 13-11. Regis then responded with a 10-2 run of its own to build their lead back up to 10, taking a 23-13 lead on John Thompson's (Seekonk, Mass.) and-one layup and freethrow.
Endicott would look to its bench to get back in the game as Chris Galbraith (Lowell, Mass.) scored a quick four points to cut the lead back down to 25-21. After a Regis basket, Tanner McEntee (Del Mar, Calif.) would connect from downtown to cut the lead to three. It would not be enough however as the Pride closed out the half on a 20-9 run and took a 47-33 lead into the break.
Regis would score 18 points in the paint and 14 points off turnovers in the half compared to just eight points in the paint and zero points off turnovers for the Gulls.
Endicott would come out quickly in the second half, getting the lead back down to 11 on a pair of freethrows by Graham Whitelaw (Kennebunk, Maine). However, the Pride would continue to hold the Gulls at bay for the rest of the half, building their lead back up to 16 as Josh Irvin (New Britain, Conn.) would sandwich two layups between a McGuire field goal. The rest of the half would be more of the same as the Pride would hold its lead by more than 12 points until the final minutes.
Matt Bibeau (Wilmington, Mass.) would cut the lead down to 10 with less than a minute remaining but it would be too little, too late as Derrick Neal's 11 second half points would down the Gulls, 80-69.
For the game, Regis scored 16 points on 17 Endicott turnovers while outscoring the Gulls in the paint, 34-20. The Gulls would win the battle on the boards 51-35 but 3-for-22 shooting from beyond the arc doomed the Gulls into defeat as Regis shot 50% from the field despite missing more than half their freethrows, 15-33.
The Gulls were led by Tim Boyatsis (Dover, N.H.) who came off the bench to score 15 points before fouling out. Callo led all players with 10 rebounds while Ross Stewart (Palm Harbor, Fla.) led the Gulls with three assists. McEntee was the third Gull in double-figures with 10 points while Chris Galbraith had nine points and eight rebounds.
Regis was led by Neal's 31 points while shooting 5-of-7 from three-point land and was aided by 11 points each from Jesse Vega (Pawtucket, R.I.) and Phil Alibrandi (York, Maine). Vega also led the Pride with six rebounds and added three assists.
The Blue and Green look to get back in the win column on Tuesday night when they host the University of New England in a TCCC contest scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Regis continues its schedule on Tuesday as well, hosting Western New England College at 7:30 p.m.
