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Recap | Box Score
Nighthawks Fall to Blazers, 84-73
CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Newbury College men’s basketball team dropped game two of Saturday afternoon’s women’s-men’s double-header to Elms College, 84-73. Senior guard John Rowley, Jr. (Hartford, Conn.) led the Nighthawks with a team-high 20 points in the defeat.
At halftime Newbury held a two-point, 33-31, advantage over Elms but the Blazers came out firing in second, outscoring the Nighthawks, 53-40.
Leading 50-49 with 10:58 to play in the contest, senior guard Cecil Avant (Southwest, Fla.) hit the first of three straight treys in a 56 second span to give the Blazers a 59-49 lead, and hit his fourth three-pointers at the 7:47 mark to give Elms a 13-point 66-53 cushion. He then connected for his fifth dart from beyond the arc with 6:55 remaining and the Blazers scored six of the next 10 points over the next 3:42 to post a comfortable 18-point 77-59 advantage.
Trailing 81-63 with 1:22 to play, Newbury’s Rondell Best (Brockton, Mass.) hit a jumper and a three-pointer by Tim Young (Brockton, Mass.) cut the Nighthawks’ deficit to 13 (81-68) with 56 ticks on the clock. Another trey by Young 23 seconds later shrank Elms’ lead to 11 (82-71) and a basket underneath by Rowley settled the score at 82-73 with 20 seconds to play. However, that’s as close as Newbury would get as Blazers’ freshman forward Isaiah Odunlami (Providence, R.I.) and freshman guard Jordan Robinson (Plainsboro, N.J.) each hit the front end of two free throws to help Elms withstand the Nighthawks’ comeback attempt and seal an 84-73 victory.
After shooting just 35.3-percent from the field and 27.3-percent from three-point range in the first half, Elms found its rhythm in the second stanza, hitting on 20 of 29 (69-percent) from the floor and a spectacular 7 of 10 (70-percent) from beyond the arc en route to its 11-point win.
Cecil Avant scored his 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting from the field and 5 of 7 from three-point range and contributed seven steals and five assists, while senior forward Juan Alverio (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) netted 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting, including two treys.
Senior forward Edgar Martinez (Springfield, Mass.) added 16 points, while he and Alverio tied for a team-high in rebounds with seven each. Alverio added three blocks, four assists and three steals, while Martinez dished out three assists, swatted two shots and added two steals.
Peterson Bernard (Boston, Mass.) followed up Rowley tallying 16 points and collected a game-high 10 rebounds. Young swished four three-pointers en route to 14 points.
The loss drops Newbury to 7-13 on the season and 6-5 in the Necc while Elms improves to 15-6 and 8-2 in the conference. The Nighthawks return to the hard-court on Tuesday February 8th when they host Wheelock College at 7:00pm. In their first meeting this season, Newbury the Nighthawks defeated the Wildcats, 72-54, on January 8th.
- Game story provided by: Chris Attwood, Sports Information Director - Elms College
