BEVERLY, Mass. — The Endicott men's basketball team defeated Curry, 74-72, in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action on Thursday night at MacDonald Gymnasium.
Elijah Kinney (Nashville, Tenn.) led all scorers with his fifth career double-double including 24 points (8-15 FG, 3-8 3PT, 5-7 FT), 12 boards, three steals, and the game-winning layup.
Jalen Echevarria (Lynn, Mass.) collected 17 points (5-12 FG, 2-5 3PT, 5-6 FT) in 34 minutes of action.
Liam Dunfee (Nahant, Mass.) chipped in with eight points and ripped down four rebounds off the bench.
In the opening stanza, Endicott produced a 21-4 run to gain a 30-19 lead with 11:38 left. The stretch was driven by Kinney (6), Dunfee (4), Parker McLaren (Newburyport, Mass.) (4), Matt Boen (Mansfield, Mass.) (3), Echevarria (2), and Jeff Hill (Lynn, Mass.) (2).
The Gulls held the Colonels without a field goal for 4:22 (13:22-9:00) during that stretch.
Curry responded with an 11-3 scoring run to cut the deficit to 39-35 with 4:17 to play. However, the Blue and Green went into the locker room with a 48-46 lead.
From there, for the first eight minutes of the second half, each team traded baskets and defensive stops. The Gulls advantage leaped to nine points (70-61) via a 6-2 run. The spurt was generated by layups from Cam Homsey (Windham, N.H.), Mark Barrett (Brookline, Mass.), and McLaren.
With less than two minutes remaining, Kinney knocked down a free throw to make it, 72-69.
Curry's Jonathan Joel (Cranston, R.I.) converted an and-one layup to deadlock the game at 72-72.
With 29 seconds left, Kinney swiped the ball away in Endicott's defensive end and was fouled in transition as he stepped up to the free throw line and knocked down two clutch freebies.
On the ensuing possession, Curry answered with a second-chance layup to knot the game at 74-74.
Curry had a chance to take the lead at the free-throw line but missed as the Gulls came down and Barrett found Kinney underneath and made the layup to turn away the Colonels.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- The Gulls have won the last 21 meetings against Curry dating back to 1/11/2014.
- The Blue and Green have started conference play 5-0 in back-to-back seasons.
- Endicott outscored Curry in the lane, 32-22.
- The hosts notched 12 fast break points to the visitors two.
- The duo of Barrett and Hill each distributed six assists.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott (9-3, 5-0 CCC) visits Hartford on Saturday, January 6 at 3:30 PM. Curry (6-6, 0-5 CCC) hosts Western New England on Saturday at 2:00 PM.
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(Photo Credit -Leanna Puccio '24)
