WESTON, Mass. – The Regis College men's basketball team losing streak reached three games as the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth used a 14-1 second half run to turn a close contest into a double-digit 87-71 victory on Wednesday night at Higgins Court. With the win, the Corsairs improve to 7-5 on the season and the loss drops the Pride to 3-8.
Four of the five Pride starters scored in double figures as Chris Leak Jr. (New Haven, Conn.) recorded his second straight double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Hector Heredia (Lawrence, Mass.) scored 10 points and made 4-of-5 field goals including a 2-for-2 effort from three-point land. He also handed out a team-high four assists.
Regis won the tip to begin the contest and called out a designed play to begin the game. Senior co-captain Jeff Tagger Jr. (Brockton, Mass.) sent an alley-oop, from the opposite three-point line towards the back of rim to current New England Collegiate Conference and Eastern College Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week Ademola Afonja (Staten Island, N.Y.) The duos timing was perfect on the play as Afonja snared the ball out of midair and came down thunderously with a two handed jam to give the Crimson and Gold the early 2-0 lead.
The Pride offense kept attacking as they built their largest lead of the contest at the 16:29 mark when Hector Heredia buried a three-ball to put Regis up six, 9-3. UMass responded with an 11-0 run capped off by a three pointer from freshman sharpshooter Atakan Akcam (Hoosac Falls, N.Y.) to give the guests a five point, 14-9 lead. On the next trip down the floor, Regis' own shooter Chris Keaton (Beverly, Mass.) splashed a three of his own to cut the deficit back down to two. Akcam matched Keaton's three on the next possession to put the lead back up to five points, 17-12 with 10:58 in the half.
After the teams traded buckets, Keaton again came off the bench and converted a shot from the parking lot, to turn a one point Corsair lead to a two point, 27-25 Pride advantage with 5:04 left in the first stanza. UMass outscored Regis 11-5 over the final five minutes to head into the intermission up 36-32.
The second half was a back and forth affair as both teams each held the lead at certain points. Regis used a 9-2 run early on to take a one point advantage after senior guard Jordan Monts (Springfield, Mass.) sunk a three-ball from the corner with 18:07 left in the duel. The Corsairs then used their offensive attack fueled by freshman big man Nick Portelance (Fairhaven, Mass.) and the nation's third leading scorer Jordan Rezendes (Onset, Mass.) to regain a sizeable seven point lead. The Crimson and Gold wouldn't back down as they responded with a 13-4 run to take back a two point advantage with 11:36 to go.
The Pride last held the lead at the 6:12 mark after Chris Leak Jr. split his free throw attempts. Regis was then outscored 22-5 over the final five minutes of the contest with Nick Portelance and Jordan Rezendes each doing damage with old fashioned three-point plays. Regis freshman forward Eric Bontemps (Newmarket, N.H.) scored his first career-collegiate bucket as his buzzer beating floater tickled the twine as the final seconds rolled off the clock.
The Corsairs shot 61.3% (19-of-31) in the second half while also doing most of their scoring in the low post. Freshman big man Nick Portelance scored 23 of his 25 points in the second half down low while also grabbing 11 of his 14 caroms in the second period. Jordan Rezendes scored 28 points with 12 of his tallies coming from the foul line as he shot 12-of-14 (85.7%) from the charity stripe.
Jeff Tagger Jr. led all Pride scorers with 16 points while also handing out four assists and making two steals. Ademola Afonja scored 10 points and Chris Keaton added six off the bench.
Regis returns to conference play on Saturday when the ship off to Boston for a date with the Newbury Nighthawks at 2:00 p.m.