SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The Springfield College men's basketball team edged Regis College, 61-60, in the opening game of the Hampton Inn West Springfield/Naismith Classic on Friday evening in Blake Arena on the campus of Springfield College.
Springfield improves to 7-3, while Regis drops to 5-4. The consolation game of the Classic will take place on Saturday at 3:00 pm, while the championship tilt will tip at 5:00 pm.
Regis had four players score in double figures, with Jeff Tagger Jr. (Brockton, Mass.), Hector Heredia (Lawrence, Mass.), and Jaiwon Martin (Coral Springs, Fla.) each netting 11 points and Jordan Monts (Springfield, Mass.) tallying 10 points.
Josh Altman (Rockport, Mass.) netted a team-best 11 points for Springfield, while classmate Nick Sienkiewicz (Cranston, R.I.) added 10 points. Tim Swenson (Millbury, Mass.) netted nine points and picked up seven boards, and Sean Martin (Rindge, N.H.) stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, six rebounds, five assists, and a pair of steals.
Both teams showed some rust to start the game, but the Pride jumped out to an early 11-7 lead with 13:02 on the clock. Over the next 5:40, Springfield answered with an 11-2 surge to take an 18-13 lead following a Sienkiewicz triple from the left wing.
Springfield would lead by as many as six after a Brandon Eckles (West Greenwich, R.I.) finish inside gave the hosts a 26-20 cushion with 1:26 left in the frame. However, Regis benefited from a pair of Tagger lay ups in the final 1:09 to cut Springfield's lead to 27-24 heading into the break.
Springfield wasted little time seizing control of the game, pouring on a 14-3 run to begin the second half. Altman opened the stanza with five points in the opening 1:14 and Springfield's lead would later balloon to 41-27 on an elbow jumper from Sienkiewicz with 16:03 left in regulation.
Regis fought their way all the way back into the contest scoring 17 of the game's next 23 points to climb within 47-44 on a bucket from Monts with 7:55 on the clock.
Down the stretch, Springfield went inside to Swenson, and consecutive buckets from the big man put Springfield ahead 51-44 with 5:04 to play. Regis would not go away though, and used a pair of triples from Heredia to stay close, the latter coming at 1:37 to make it a 54-50 game.
Coming out of a timeout, Martin made an acrobatic lay in while being fouled with the shot clock winding down and his three point play pushed the Pride's lead back to seven with 2:02 to play.
A Heredia floater made it a one-possession game with four seconds left, and after Sienkiewcz knocked down 1-of-2 from the line to make it a four-point game, Tagger Jr.'s three-pointer at the buzzer made it a 61-60 final score.
Release courtesy of Springfield College Sports Information