Men’s Basketball Tops Lesley, 79-58

Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Elms College senior point-guard Juan Maldonado (Holyoke, Mass.) drained a game-high 21 points and senior forward Javon Mathis (East Hartford, Conn.) recorded a double-double with 17 points and a game-high 14 rebounds to help lift the Blazers to a 79-58 victory over Lesley University in Thursday evening’s New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men’s basketball contest.

With the win, Elms improves to 17-6 overall, 10-2 in NECC action, while Lesley slides to 7-14 on the season, 4-6 in league play.

Trailing 35-34 at halftime, Matt Grassa (Everett, Mass.) put Lesley up two when he swished a trey to set the score at 36-34. Elms then answered with a 12-2 run on the strength of six points from Mathis, four points from freshman guard Brittain Purcelle (Tarrytown, N.Y.) and two from senior forward Antoine Holder (Hartford, Conn.) to give the Blazers a 46-38 lead at the 13:10 mark of the second frame.

A 9-2 string by the Lynx pulled Lesley to within one at 48-47 with 10:35 remaining in the game. A Maldonado layup and three pointer, followed by a jumper from Purcelle put Elms back up by eight, before two free throws each from Bryant Itonyo (Medford, Mass.) and Harold Smith (Florence, Ariz.) cut Lesley’s deficit to four at 55-51 with 7:28 to play.

Elms then scored 13 of the next 16 points to stake a 14-point 68-54 lead with 4:23 left in the contest, and closed out the game on an 11-4 run, that saw sophomore guard Luis Santiago (San Juan, Puerto Rico) score four points, Holder swish a trey, junior forward Edgar Martinez (Springfield, Mass.) nail a jumper, and freshman guard Walter Mfuko (Amherst, Mass.) convert a pair from the charity stripe to seal the victory.

Elms shot 51.4-percent from the field in the second half and held the Lynx to just 28.6 percent from the floor in the period to help secure the win.

Lesley came out firing in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 12 unanswered points in the first 2:23 behind eight points from John Sanchez (Carson, Calif.), and two each from Itonyo and Jesus Trejo (Methuen, Mass.).

The Lynx preserved a double-digit cushion until freshman guard Andre French (Torrington, Conn.) struck from beyond the arc to cut the gap to eight at 18-10 at the 13:26 mark. A pair of Lesley free throws by Shawn Simons (Norwalk, Conn.) extended the lead back to 10, but another three-pointer, this time from Maldonado, kept the edge in single digits.

The Blazers fought to within two points twice, before a basket down low by Martinez narrowed the gap to one with 2:26 to play in the opening frame.

Junior forward Juan Alverio (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) and French each hit a free throw, and Mathis converted two from the stripe to give Elms a 34-31 lead with 17 seconds to play in the period, before Grassa hit a jumper before the buzzer to give the Blazers a 34-33 lead at intermission.

Martinez and Holder each finished with nine points in the winning effort, while Purcelle chipped in with eight.

Santiago and junior guard Arsenio Avant (Southwest, Fla.) added three assists off the bench.

Lesley received a 13-point effort from Sanchez, while Simmons totaled nine points. Alex Green III (Baton Rouge, La.) and Trejo added eight points in the loss.

Green III snagged a team-best eight rebounds, while Sanchez handed out four assists.

Elms returns to action when it hosts Mitchell College in an NECC contest on Saturday, Feb. 13. Game-time is set for 3:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena.