BENNINGTON, Vt. – Led by a strong second half, the No. 2 seed Regis College Men's basketball team defeated No. 6 seed Daniel Webster 75-59 on Saturday evening, during the NECC Semifinals hosted by Southern Vermont College. With the win the Pride earn their 18th victory of the season and with the loss, the Eagles fall to 11-16, 7-10, NECC.
The Pride will now square off against the host Mountaineers tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. at the Mountaineer Athletic Center. in Bennington. No. 1 seed Southern Vermont defeated No. 4 seed Becker 71-66 in overtime in the first game Saturday evening. This is Regis' second appearance in the championship game and first since the 2012-13 season.
Ray Farmer (Nashua, N.H.) scored the first points of the game when he made a layup from under the hoop. The game remained scoreless for the next two minutes before a Michael Campbell (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) jumper from the elbow ended the dry spell. The Pride started the game by going 0-of-5 from the field, but Jordan Monts (Springfield, Mass.) opened the scoring for the Crimson and Gold by driving through the paint and converting a layup. Daniel Webster took advantage of the Pride's slow start by outscoring Regis 11-4 during the first seven minutes of play.
The Eagles keep their foot on the gas as Angelo Adon (Silver Spring, Md.) swished a jumper from beyond the arc to give Daniel Webster their largest lead of the contest 21-13 with 10:11 left in the first half. Regis cut into that lead quickly as they scored five straight points ending with a Sam Jean-Gilles (Melrose, Mass.) three pointer that forced the Eagles to take a timeout. Following the stoppage, the Eagles went on a mini 9-4 run in which Michael Campbell and Angelo Adon converted three-balls. The Pride found themselves down eight again with 4:42 left in the half, but regained some momentum after Hector Heredia (Lawrence, Mass.) got fouled, buried a three-pointer and completed the rare four point play. The teams traded buckets during the next three minutes before Jeff Tagger Jr. (Brockton, Mass.) and Heredia scored four clutch points with under a minute to go which cut the Eagles lead to four, 36-32 at the intermission.
Daniel Webster shot 56% from the field during the first half while the Pride shot 48.1%. 22 of the Prides' 32 points came from inside the paint, while the Eagles converted five three pointers.
The second stanza was another story; Tagger Jr. opened the scoring in the second half by sinking a shot from the corner behind the arc. Chris Leak Jr. (New Haven, Conn.) who scored nine of his 14 points in the first half, made an important layup assisted by Ethan Peana (Staten Island, N.Y.) that gave the Crimson and Gold their first lead of the contest at the 17:39 mark. Regis scored the first five points of the second half.
Angelo Adon did his best to keep his team ahead as he responded with a three-pointer, which briefly regained the lead for the Eagles. After relinquishing the lead back to Daniel Webster, Peana responded to Adon's three-ball with one of his own that pushed the Pride up ahead. Peana's three-pointer was part of a 10-1 run that propelled the Pride to a managable lead. The Eagles hung around cutting the Pride advantage back down to three at the 11:54 mark, but Chris Keaton (Beverly, Mass.) made a reverse layup underneath the hoop and on the next possession knocked down a three-pointer off a screen that put the Pride up for good and diminished the hope of a Eagles comeback bid.
The Crimson and Gold outscored their opponents, 43-23 in the second half. Regis made 15-of-30 (50%) shot attempts during the second half including 5-of-8 (62.5%) from three-point land. The Eagles converted on 6-of-24 (25%) attempts and made 5-of-7 (71.4) from beyond the arc.
Both teams combined to make 17-of-33 (51.5%) three point attempts throughout the game. The Pride relied on production from their bench players in the game outscoring the Eagles 25-2 from the pine. Regis also outscored Daniel Webster 40-14 in the paint.
Chris Leak Jr. came off the bench and recorded a double-double, 14 points and a team-high 13 rebounds with 11 of them coming in the second half. Jeff Tagger Jr. also chipped in with 14 points, while also grabbing seven caroms and dishing out two assists. Hector Heredia scored in double figures with 11 points and led the squad in helpers with five. Sam Jean-Gilles, Ethan Peana, and Chris Keaton all scored nine points apiece.