Blazer Men Fend Off Lesley Comeback Attempt To Enter Postseason With Momentum

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – After a strong first half, the Elms College men's basketball fended off a comeback attempt from Lesley to pick up a 56-53 New England Collegiate Conference road victory on Saturday in the regular-season finale for both teams.

The Blazers improve to 4-21 overall and finish NECC play at 4-10 with their second-consecutive win. Lesley falls to 12-13 overall and 7-7 in the NECC.

Lesley jumped ahead 7-0 out of the gates, but Elms outscored the Lynx 32-16 the rest of the half to take a 32-23 lead into halftime.

Lesley cut the Blazer lead to just one possession on several occasions in the second half before eventually tying the game at 49-49 with 3:46 to play. After exchanging buckets on back-to-back possessions the game was tied 53-53 with two minutes to play.

With the score still tied at 53, Elms freshman Greg Metelus hit the eventual game-winner, a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left to put the Blazers ahead 56-53.

Lesley's Marquise Johnson attempted a game-tying 3-pointer with 10 seconds left but it was off the mark and Nikolas Brown secured the rebound for Elms. After Brown missed the front end of a one-and-one with six seconds left, the Lynx got one final shot a game-trying trey, but Joey Martin misfired at the buzzer and Elms escaped with the victory.

Metelus led Elms with 17 points and Brown added eight for the Blazers. DeAngelo Cousar finished with seven points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers. Johnson finished with 13 points to lead Lesley.

With wins in its final two games, Elms earned the No. 6 seed in next week's NECC tournament. The Blazers will visit No. 3 seed Mitchell on Feb. 20 at 7:00 p.m. The winner of that game will visit No. 2 Becker on Feb. 22 at 7:00 p.m.