AMCATS Stun Wildcats

PAXTON, Mass. – The Anna Maria College men's basketball team defeated the Wildcats of Johnson and Wales University by a score of 91-87 at The Fuller Activities Center on Thursday night. Anna Maria is now 6-8 overall and improves to 5-3 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference, while the Lions drop to 5-10 on the year and 4-4 in GNAC-play.

Anthony Click (Springfield, Mass.), Brad Peterson (North Kingstown, R.I.) and Corey Pryor (Northbridge, Mass.) paced the AMCAT attack with a combined 72 points in the high-scoring affair.  Click had a monster night, adding a team-high 27 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, six blocks and four steals.  Peterson contributed a double-double with 23 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.  Pryor also served a pivotal role, adding a career high 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc. 

Lamonte Thomas (Providence, R.I.) did his best to keep the Wildcats in the game, adding a game-high 38 points and six three-pointers. 

Anna Maria held a 22-21 advantage midway through the first-half, however an 11-2 run by the visitors gave the Wildcats a 32-24 lead.  Behind a half-high 14 points from Lamonte Thomas, Johnson and Wales sustained the momentum and took a 41-36 lead into intermission. 

Clicked paced the AMCAT offense with 12 points at the half while Peterson netted nine points and six rebounds.

The second-half was the Corey Pryor and Lamonte Thomas show, as Thomas chipped in a half-high 24 points while Pryor met him bucket for bucket.  Pryor was lights-out in the half, adding all of his 22 points in the second-half.

Pryor wasted no time getting to work at the start of the second-half, scoring seven quick points to even the score at 52-all.  Anthony Clicked joined in and reeked havoc on both the offensive and defensive ends to help build a small 80-77 lead.

With 2:00 remaining, Pryor buried a 3-pointer to give the AMCATS an 83-77 lead and appeared to thwart Wildcat comeback attempt.

Matt Williams (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) hit a lay-up for the visitors to make it a 83-79 lead with 59 seconds left and James Folk (Lawrence, Mass.) stole the ball after the ensuing Anna Maria inbound attempt.

 Folk promptly fed the ball to Lamonte Thomas who cut the lead to 83-82 with a clutch 3-point field goal with 46 seconds remaining.

The comeback was not mean to be, as Peterson slashed his way to the basket for a lay-up to give the AMCATS a 85-82 lead.  Anna Maria then hit all six of their foul shots down the stretch to seal the 91-87 victory.  

Both teams return to conference action on Saturday at 3:00 pm, with the Wildcats hosting St. Joseph's of Maine, while the AMCATS take to the road against Albertus Magnus College.

Game story courtesy of Jeff Lander, AMC graduate assistant.

Photo courtesy of David Sheridan.