No. 2 Elms College Wins 2009-10 Men’s Basketball NECC Championship, 79-68

Box Score

LEICESTER, Mass. – For the second time in as many seasons, the Elms College men’s basketball team won the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship tournament as the second-seeded Blazers downed No. 1 Becker College 79-68 on Saturday in Leicester, Mass.

With the win, Elms improves to 21-6 on the season and will await selection into either NCAA or ECAC tournaments. Becker concludes its season 18-9 overall.

Elms has now won six straight conference championships, and has won 20 or more games in each of the last six seasons.

Trailing 55-54 with 11:27 to play in the game, Elms’ junior forward Juan Alverio (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) delivered a layup to spark a 17-1 run, highlighted by three-pointers from freshman guard Andre French (Torrington, Conn.), senior point guard Juan Maldonado (Holyoke, Mass.), junior guard Arsenio Avant (Southwest, Fla.) and sophomore guard Bryant Corcoran (Wolcott, Conn.) to give the Blazers a 15-point 71-56 lead with 5:14 to play.

Becker used a 10-3 run on the strength of four points each from Terrence Favors (Boston, Mass.) and Markus Wright (New London, Conn.) to pull the Hawks to within eight at 74-66 with 2:33 to play in the contest, but Elms scored five of the next seven points to seal the victory and its second straight title win over Becker.

French netted a game-high 18 points for the Blazers en route to Most Valuable Player honors, while junior forward Edgar Martinez (Springfield, Mass.) and senior forward Antoine Holder (Hartford, Conn.) finished with 11 and nine points respectively in the win. Senior forward Javon Mathis (East Hartford, Conn.) hauled in a team-best nine rebounds while Alverio contributed seven boards.

Becker’s Trey Jacobs (Lexington Park, Md.) and Favors poured in 17 points apiece for the Hawks, while Mudia Osewegie (Roselle, N.J.) added 16. Jacobs tackled the glass for a game-best 11 rebounds in the losing effort.

Becker stormed out to an early 10-0 lead in the first 3:04, and extended that lead to 16-5 at the 13:45 mark. Osewegie, DJ Exum (New London, Conn.) and Wright netted four points apiece during the run, while Jacobs and Favors each added a jumper to give the Hawks an early 11-point cushion.

Elms answered right back, scoring 13 of the next 17 points on the strength of seven points by junior forward Martinez, four from Mathis and a mid-range jumper from Holder to pull the Blazers to within two at 20-18 with 9:41 to play in the frame.

Becker pushed its lead back to five at 24-19, before Avant swished a three-pointer and Holder added a bucket and a pair of free throws to give Elms its first advantage of the contest 25-24, at the 7:55 mark.

Trailing 27-25 with 5:43 remaining in the frame, French sank a trey to spark a 13-5 run to close out the half. French added two more from beyond the arc, while freshman guard Brittain Purcelle (Tarrytown, N.Y.) and sophomore guard Luis Santiago (San Juan, Puerto Rico) each added a layup to give Elms a 38-32 lead at intermission.

French netted nine points off the bench on 3 of 3 shooting from long-range, while Martinez added seven points in the first period for Elms.

Becker received eight points each from Jacobs and Osewegie to help the Hawks shoot 46.4-percent from the field in the stanza.

2009-10 NECC All-Tournament Team
Andre French, Elms College, MVP
Arsenio Avant, Elms College
DeJohn Exum, Becker College
Trey Jacobs, Becker College
Alex Green, Lesley University
Sherard Robbins, Wheelock College