QUINCY, Mass. - Eastern Nazarene College squared off with the Roger Williams University Men's Basketball team on Wednesday night in the Lahue Physical Education Center. Despite a valiant and hard fought second-half comeback effort, the Lions fell to the Hawks 63-57 in regulation.
RWU shot 15-30 (50.0%) from the field in the first half against the Lions, who went 9-31 (29.0%) as the Hawks took a 40-24 lead into the locker room. At the break Roger Williams held a slight edge on the glass (21-18), while the Lions held the advantage in first half free throw percentage, shooting 75 percent from the line compared to RWU's 57.1 percent.
Junior Mike Engemann (Red Bank, N.J.) led all-players at the break with 12 points, going 4-6 from the 3-point line. Senior Pat Flanagan (Somerville, Mass.) scored 11 for the Hawks and tallied two blocks. Freshman Adam Cook (Manasquan, N.J.) distributed the ball to his teammates, racking up five first-half assists to lead all players.
The Lions were well balanced on the offensive end, with four players scoring five or more points in the half. Sophomore Brian Hard led the Lion's rebounding effort, posting a game-high five in the first 20 minutes of play.
In the second half, the Lions battled to close the 16-point gap built by the Hawks. ENC held their opponent scoreless for nearly seven minutes between 12:53 and 5:57, cutting RWU's lead to eight at 53-45 with 7:55 to play after a three-pointer from Eastern Nazarene's DeAngelo Alston. Roger Williams' junior Matt Clifford (Norwood, Mass.) would respond with a made jump shot to end the drought and put his team up by 10 with just under six to go. The Lions responded quickly and the next several possessions saw the Hawk lead cut in half with just 3:10 to play. Junior Max Barbosa would put the ENC within three at the 2:51 mark, but the home team would get no closer, as the Lions were forced to resort to fouling down the stretch. Flanagan went 6-6 from the charity stripe in the final 21 seconds to secure the RWU victory.
Three players finished in double-figures for the Hawks. Flanagan led the effort, scoring 17 and grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. Engemann completed the contest with 14 points and seven boards and Clifford tallied twelve points. Cook racked up a solid line with five rebounds, five assists and four steals in 26 minutes for RWU.
Chima Ezeigbo led all players with 18 points. The junior also grabbed eight off the glass and blocked two shots. Alston stepped up offensively to score 10 and junior teammate Aaron Johnson hit 3 from downtown, tallying nine points and seven rebounds for ENC. Senior CJ Gonzales and juniors Mike McCoy and Barbosa contributed six points apiece in the loss. Barbosa dished out a game-high seven assists.
ENC travels to Wentworth on Saturday, January 28th to face the Leopards in a 3:00 p.m. showdown. Roger Williams returns home to take on Endicott the same day, also at 3:00 p.m.
- Release courtesy of the Eastern Nazarene College Sports Information Department
