BROOKLINE, Mass. – Led by a near double-double by senior captain Jeff Tagger Jr. (Brockton, Mass.), the Regis College men's basketball team earned their first New England Collegiate Conference victory by defeating Newbury College 62-42 on Saturday afternoon.
Tagger Jr. scored 11 points and matched a career-high with eight caroms in the win. Regis did most of their damage in the paint as they scored 42 of their 62 points in the lane.
Regis wasted little time coming out of the gate strong with a 7-1 run in the first four minutes. However, in the next possession sophomore forward Jeduan Langston (Roxbury, Mass.) converted the three-point play after being fouled by the Pride's Sam Jean-Gilles (Melrose, Mass.) to cut into the Regis lead, 7-4. But the Pride answered with a 10-0 run to extend their lead to 14-4 and they did not look behind them.
In addition to taking advantage of nine Nighthawk turnovers and converting them into points, the Pride dominated the paint outscored the Nighthawks 22-8 while battling for seven offensive rebounds. Taking a commanding 17-point, 33-16 lead into the locker room, the Regis bench came up strong in the first half tallying 20 points including 11 from Leak, who was a near-perfect five-of-seven from the field.
When the teams returned to the court at the start of the second period, the momentum remained on the side of Regis with Leak opening with a lay-up to end the lead to 19. After senior guard Dallas Serrano (Valley Stream, N.Y.) answered with a lay-up, junior guard Joshua Oliver (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) picked the pocket of Leak before connecting with Langston, who slammed it home with a fast-break dunk to cut the deficit to 35-20.
But the Pride responded and regained momentum with an extended three-minute run of their own to put them back on top by 22. Midway through the second half, senior Hector Heredia (Lawrence, Mass.) connected with first year forward Jamal Rene (Methuen, Mass.) in the paint to give the Pride their largest lead of the game, 50-24.
The Nighthawks chipped away at the deficit. Langston knocked down a trey from the outside to ignite an 8-0 run to pull Newbury to within 18 points of Regis but it was not enough.
Junior forward Chris Leak Jr. (New Haven, Conn.) scored 13 points off the bench for the Pride while also snagging four rebounds. First year forward Ademola Afonja (Staten Island, N.Y.) was a force in the front court recording three blocks and six rebounds while rounding out the Pride in double figures with 10 points.
Langston led the Nighthawks with 16 points on the afternoon while junior forward Kenny Ramos (Roxbury, Mass.) continued to show his dominance in the post registering, a game-high, 12 rebounds. Junior guard Ceejae Carter (Dorchester, Mass.) followed up with seven points.
Newbury drops to 2-9 on the season and 1-2 in conference play while Regis improves to 4-8 and 1-2 in the NECC. The Nighthawks will be back in action on Tuesday January 12th when they travel to Southern Vermont College for a 6:00 p.m. tip-off with the Mountaineers. The Pride will be back in action on Thursday January 14th when they host Becker College at 6:00 p.m.
Release Courtesy of Newbury Nighthawks Sports Information