BRISTOL, R.I. – The Roger Williams University men's basketball team is coming off a Senior Day loss, but is preparing for Endicott after earning the No. 6 seed in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Tournament.
The Hawks enter the CCC Tournament as the No. 6 seed, posting a 13-12 record on the season and going 10-8 in CCC action. The Hawks used a six-game conference winning-streak at the beginning of the season to jumpstart their CCC standing. The Hawks then lost a pair of contests to Western New England and Endicott. After 14 games the Hawks stood at 10-4 before dropping their final four conference contests.
Mac Annus (Belmont, Mass.) leads the scoring effort for Roger Williams averaging 15.8 points per game, while Will MacDonald (York, Maine) scores on average 14.2 points per matchup. Nate Lopes (Scituate, Mass.) also averages double figures with 11.4 points per game.
Freshman Philip Sughrue (Winchester, Mass.) leads the team with 97 assists on the season and is followed by Lopes who has 67 assists on the year. Annus has assisted of 56 buckets this season, while John Ah Kao (Dumont, N.J.) has dished out 50 assists for the Hawks coming off the bench.
Defensively Lopes leads the Hawks with 20 blocks on the defensive end, while also adding 32 steals. Sughrue also leads the team in steals with 45 steals on the year, ahead of Lopes. Annus has added 22 steals on the season, while Sean Gogolin (Winchester, Mass.) and Ty Higgins (New Marlborough, Mass.) both have 16 steals this season.
Lopes averages 6.6 rebounds per contest this season, and MacDonald adds an additional 5.4 per game on the glass. Sughrue ranks third on the team with 4.2 rebounds per game.
For Endicott, they enter the CCC Tournament as the No. 3 seed coming out with key victories over Suffolk, Wentworth, and pair of wins against Roger Williams during the regular season. The Gulls posted a 12-6 record within CCC action, and a 16-9 record overall.
They are led on the offensive end by Jalen Echevarria who is scoring on average 19.5 points per game and is followed by Jeff Hill, who is scoring 13.6 points per contest. The Gulls' Mark Barrett is just shy of the double figure mark with 9.0 points per game.
Barrett is responsible for assisting on 3.1 baskets per game with Echevarria and Hill both assisting 2.9 field goals per contest. Matt Garry pulls down 7.2 rebounds per game with Barrett also pulling down 6.6 rebounds per contest.
Barrett also leads the Gulls in blocks per game with 1.4 per matchup and is followed by Dillon Grant who averages 1.1 per game. Garry leads the team with 2.3 steals per contest and Barrett ranks second on the team with 1.7 a matchup.
The Hawks and Gulls have met 46 times in the program's history, with Endicott holding a 34-12 advantage in the series. Roger Williams has dropped the last two meetings in the series, both from this season. The last win for the Hawks came on Feb. 5, 2022 with a 80-60 win over the Gulls.
No. 6 Roger Williams (13-12, 10-8 CCC) will travel to No. 3 Endicott on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 7 pm from MacDonald Gymnasium in Beverly, Mass.
