BEVERLY, Mass. – With four seconds remaining in regulation, Billy Arseneault (Lynnfield, Mass.) drove to the basket, stopped, kept his dribble, and proceeded to knock down a floater in the paint as time ran out to send the Endicott men's basketball team past Wentworth, 63-62, and into the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship this Saturday.
The contest was back and forth for the final 2:06 as both teams traded clutch baskets until Arseneault's game-winner.
The Gulls tied the game at 58-all through a Jalen Echevarria (Lynn, Mass.) layup, while the Leopards then responded through Trey Carrier to go up 60-58.
Keith Brown (Pelham, N.H.) then hit a layup as he was fouled and proceeded to make the free throw to put the Gulls up 61-60 with 45 seconds remaining. On the other end, Kevin Fernandez responded to give Wentworth a 62-61 lead, before Arseneault hit the final bucket.
All of this happened during a 17-8 Gull run over the final 7:31 of the contest.
Brown paced the Gulls in scoring and rebounds with 22 points and eight rebounds. Arseneault and Echevarria followed Brown in the box score with 11 points each.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Endicott improves to 32-10 all-time against Wentworth.
- The Gulls have now won 10 straight games against the Leopards, along with holding a 5-1 advantage over Wentworth in playoff matchups.
- Endicott will be appearing in their tenth CCC Championship game on Saturday and will look to secure their eighth CCC title.
- Gulls' head coach Kevin Bettencourt is seeking his third CCC Title this weekend, which would result in as the most CCC championships by any Endicott men's basketball head coach.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott (19-7, 13-4 CCC) will host No. 2 Nichols (19-8, 13-4 CCC) in the CCC Championship game on Saturday, February 29 at 2:00 PM at MacDonald Gymnasium. With an anticipated capacity crowd, Endicott athletics fully expects the need to close doors and refuse entrance to MacDonald Gymnasium reaches capacity. Doors will open at 1:00 pm so please plan accordingly. Bags and backpacks will not be permitted.
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(Photo Credit - Brendan Carpenter '20)
