Men's Basketball Soars Past Raiders on Senior Day, 99-76
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Rivier (2-23, 1-17) | 35 | 41 | 76 |
|
Anna Maria (5-20, 5-13) | 59 | 40 | 99 |
PAXTON, Mass. – The Anna Maria College men's basketball team soared past the visiting Raiders of Rivier University 99-76 in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) battle on Saturday afternoon. The win brings the AMCATS to 5-20 overall and 5-13 in conference play. The Raiders fall to 2-23 and 1-17 in the GNAC.
Prior to the game the AMCATS recognized two seniors playing in their final home game: David Jean-Louis (Miramar, Fla.) and Jesse Maresca (Sterling, Mass.).
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Raiders, Tristian Givens led all scorers with a game high 24 points. David Lorden followed Given's play with 14 points of his own. Angel Perez rounded out the double-digit scoring for the Raiders with 12 points.
Anna Maria forced 15 Rivier turnovers and converted those mistakes into 25 points. They held a 25-19 edge in points off of turnovers, and held an advantage of 44-18 points in the paint.
The AMCATS dominated on the board collecting 42 total rebounds as well as recording 13 second chance points.
Anna Maria finished the afternoon shooting above 58 percent in field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage with 40.9 percent. The Raiders shot 44.4 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from three-point range.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The AMCATS started the game on a 7 to 0 run that was started with an early lay up from Mike Rapoza to take the 2-0 lead. The Raiders came crawling back and were able to tie the game up 9- 9 with a lay-up from Givens. The AMCATS came right back at the Raiders with two free throws made by junior Liam Pickett (Oxford, Mass.). The Raiders continued to battle and took the lead with 13:46 left in the first half with a three point shot from Jeremiah Pena to bring the score to 15-14. The AMCATS fired right back with a lay-up from Maresca to take the lead, 16-15. After that the AMCATS did not look back and dominated the game. The AMCATS went on a 43 to 20 run to end the first half with the score being 59-34 AMCATS. The AMCATS continued to dominate in the second half and proved to be too much for the Raiders to answer.
WHAT'S NEXT?
With today's victory, Anna Maria earned themselves a spot in GNAC playoff tournament play. They will take on Albertus Magnus on Tuesday, Feb. 21. at 7:00 p.m.