REGIS COLLEGE PICKS UP TCCC WIN OVER NEC

Henniker, N.H. - Regis College's Jesse Vega (Pawtucket, R.I.) would finish with a game-high 22 points leading the Pride past the New England College Pilgrims 63-50 in men's basketball action Wednesday evening.  With the win the Pride improve to 7-8 overall and 3-1 in the conference.  The loss drops the Pilgrims to 5-11 overall and 0-4 in conference play.

The Pride would open the game with a 16-5 lead up 11 in the opening seven minutes of play.  The Pilgrims would battle back as Nick Hoffman (Thetford, Vt.) would hit layup and a foul shot cutting the Pride lead down to seven at the midway point in the half.

The two teams would battle back-and-forth through much of the opening half but it would be the Regis defense that would prevail holding the NEC offense to just 24% shooting from the floor and head into halftime up 30-19.

Regis would use back-to-back layups early in the second half building their largest lead of the game up 14 two minutes into the half.  The Pilgrims would respond with a 17-4 run knotting the game at 42-42 with 8:12 remaining in regulation.

The Pride would have an answer as they would use a 14-2 run down the stretch to regain their lead and allow the Pilgrims just eight points in the final eight minutes to solidify the win.

Regis College's Phil Alibrandi (York , Maine) finished with 13 points and six rebounds.  Derrick Neal (Boston, Mass.) scored 13 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, while Jimmy Irmiter (Chicago, Ill.) chipped in 11 points for the Pride.

Leading the way for NEC was Abdi Mohamed (Biddeford, Maine) who finished with nine points.  NEC's Joe Faragher scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds for the Pilgrims.

NEC will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 23 when they host conference opponent Roger Williams University at 3:00 p.m.  Regis will host conference opponent Eastern Nazarene College on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 3:00 p.m.