WESTON, Mass. – Sam Jean-Gilles (Melrose, Mass.) tallied 19 points and played stifling defense as the Regis College men's basketball team was defeated 63-62 by Colby College on a last second three-pointer. With the victory, the Mules improve to 3-1 on the campaign and the setback drops the Pride to 2-3 on the season.
With :10 ticks left, senior guard Luke Westman (Newton, Mass.) took the rock up the court, waited for his teammates to set a screen for Ryan Jann (Westford, Mass.). Jann was ice cold from the field the whole contest, received the rock and buried a deep three from the top of the point which gave the Mules the lead with 1.2 seconds to play. A last second desperation out of bounds play by Regis was knocked down and Colby escaped Weston with the narrow victory.
The Crimson and Gold jumped out to their largest lead of the contest at the 13:48 mark after Ademola Afonja (Staten Island, N.Y.) made an easy layup from the paint. Afonja's layup was part of a 6-0 Pride run that gave the hosts a 14-8 lead. Over the next eight minutes of play Colby went on a 15-4 run of their own to take a strangle hold on the contest with a 23-18 lead. The Mules closed out the half strong with help from senior center Chris Hudnut (Chevy Chase, Md.) who converted a layup from underneath with one second to go which gave Colby their largest lead of the first half and the 34-28 advantage heading into the intermission.
Hudnut, a member of this week's D3Hoops.com Team of the Week, scored a game-best 13 points in the first half and corralled eight caroms. The senior captain faced tough sledding in the second stanza as he was double-team by the Pride defensive unit every time he touched the rock in the post. This strategy worked to the Crimson and Gold's advantage as Hudnut was held to only four points on 2-of-7 shooting and grabbed one rebound in the second half.
Jean-Gilles, however came alive in the second half of play, scoring 17 of his 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting in the final 20 minutes of the duel.
Regis opened the half on an 8-2 run that culminated in the fourth tie of the game. Mules senior guard Luke Westman made a bunny layup underneath the hoop to regain the advantage for Colby, but Jean-Gilles answered with a layup of his own to knot the score at 38-38 with 14:01 to play.
Colby responded with seven straight points to go up seven, 45-38 after John Gallego (Old Bethpage, N.Y.) buried a corner three-ball with 12:00 left in the contest.
Regis remained competitive knotting up the contest again as Jean-Gilles buried a shot from beyond the arc with 8:06 to play. After a few made buckets by Colby, Jean-Gilles put the Pride within one point, 54-53 with 5:36 to play connecting on his second three-point attempt of the stanza.
The Mules used a 6-0 run over the next few minutes to take another seven point lead, 60-53 with 2:26 to go after Sam Wilson (Watertown, Conn.) converted a layup.
The next possession, Jean-Gilles settled for a layup to cut the deficit to five points, 60-55. The Crimson and Gold's defense had to step up and make a play and it happened at the expense of Hudnut. Hudnut was trying to back down a Pride defender in the post, but the double-team got to him as Jean-Gilles thunderously swatted his layup attempt to the floor that was scooped up by Jeff Tagger Jr. (Brockton, Mass.). Tagger Jr. made an outlet pass to a streaking Chris Leak Jr. (New Haven, Conn.). With no defender in sight, Leak Jr. rose up high and threw down a thunderous one-handed jam that erupted the crowd and more importantly cut the Pride deficit to three, 60-57.
Regis regained the ball after a missed three pointer by Patrick Stewart (Bangor, Maine) and set up in the Colby defensive zone. Chris Leak Jr. drew a foul and converted both freebies to trail the Mules by one, 60-59.
On the next offensive possession, Sam Wilson tried to drive the lane, but Jean-Gilles got there just in time to draw an offensive foul. After drawing the foul, Jean-Gilles passed the ball off to a teammate, and got open for an easy jumper from the elbow to give Regis a 61-60 lead. Patrick Stewart missed a three-ball and Jean-Gilles came down with the board and was immediately fouled. He split both free throws which gave the Mules the chance to win the game with a three-pointer and Jann came up with the dagger with 1.2 to go to give Colby the 63-62 victory.
Senior captain Jordan Monts (Springfield, Mass.) also scored in double figures for the Pride adding 14 points on 5-of-8, 2-of-4 three-ball shooting. Monts also tallied eight rebounds. Jeff Tagger Jr. scored eight points, made five steals, snagged four rebounds and dished out two assists during the loss.
For the Mules, Chris Hudnut tallied 17 points and nine rebounds and Luke Westman scored 10 points while adding five assists, five rebounds and two blocks.
Regis returns to action on Thursday evening when they travel to Bennington, Vt. to square off against Southern Vermont College in a rematch of the 2014-15 New England Collegiate Conference Championship game with tip-off at 8:00 p.m.