Men's Basketball Closes Holiday Classic With Loss To Endicott

SALEM, Mass. - Ademola Afonja put up 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds but it wasn't enough as the Regis (Mass.) men's basketball team fell 79-67 to Endicott, Friday in the Salem State Holiday Classic at Twohig Gymnasium.

Sam Jean-Gilles (Melrose, Mass.) scored 13 points and dished out a team-high six assists for the Pride (3-6) who erased a nine-point lead with a 15-0 run in the first half. Chris Leak Jr. (New Haven, Conn.) added 10 points and seven boards and Jaiwon Martin (Coral Springs, Fla.) contributed 11 points off the bench.

Afonja was also named to the classic all-tournament team.

Keith Brown (Pelham, N.H.) had 15 points off the Bench for Endicott who improved to 8-2. Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) added seven points and a game-high nine rebounds.

The Pride's 15 straight points put them up 29-23 with 2:24 remaining in the half. The Gulls would close the half with a run of their own however, as Drew Sawyer (Norwalk, Conn.) and Rob O'Brien (Rindge, N.H.) hit back-to-back threes to highlight a 10-0 spurt to give Endicott a 33-29 halftime lead.

Endicott steadily increased the lead until Max Motroni's (West Warwich, R.I.) three pointer put his team up double digits for the first time. Trailing by as many as 14 points, the Pride began to chip away. Martin nailed a pair of three pointers and Jordan Seldon (Everett, Mass.) completed an and-one to shave the lead to 56-51 with just under 10 minutes to play. A pair of Leak free throws cut the lead to only three points, but back-to-back three pointers by Brown pushed the margin back up to nine points with 4:33 to play.

Regis opens the first week of 2017 with a three-game home stand, first against UMass-Boston Tuesday, Jan. 3 at 5:00 p.m. Endicott returns to action on Jan. 3 as well, hosting the Wentworth Institute of Technology at 7:30 p.m.

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