Men's Basketball Falls to Eastern Nazarene in Tip-Off Tournament
HENNIKER, N.H.—Six Fitchburg State University men's basketball players scored in double-figures leading the Falcons past the SUNY Cobleskill Fighting Tigers 108-98 in the championship game of the New England College Men's Basketball Tip-Off Tournament Saturday afternoon.
With the win the Falcons improve to 2-0on the season, while the loss is the first of the season for the Fighting Tigers who are now 1-1 overall.
The two teams battled evenly through the entire first half of play that would see eight ties and eight lead changes. Cobleskill would use a 9-2 run in the final three minutes of the opening half building their largest lead of the game up 55-47 heading into halftime.
Cobleskill would lead by as many as nine in the second half before Fitchburg would put together a 16-0 run going up 68-61 with 13 minutes remaining to play. Fitchburg would continue with the offensive pressure building a 15 point lead midway through the half. Cobleskill would battle back cutting the lead to five but that is as close as the Fighting Tigers would get as the Falcons would shoot an impressive 87% from the foul line in the second half to solidify the 108-98 victory.
Fitchburg's Zach Valliere (Douglas, Mass.) finished with a double-double scoring 21 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Mike Ingram-Rubin (Boston, Mass.) scored 21 points, had seven rebounds and dished out six assists, while Jeremy Kimber (Fitchburg, Mass.) chipped in 20 points for the Falcons.
Leading the way for Cobleskill was Tyrone Mitchell (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) who finished with a game-high 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field. Will Davis (White Plains, N.Y.) and Mike Marcelin (Dix Hill, N.Y.) each chipped in 15 points, while Travis Woods (Mount Union, N.Y.) led the Fighting Tigers in rebounds with eight.
In the opening game of the day Eastern Nazarene College would shoot an impressive 57% from the field and out rebound New England College 41-32 en route to the 104-73 victory in the consolation game of the NEC Tip-Off Tournament Saturday afternoon.
With the win the Lions even their overall record at 1-1, while the Pilgrims are still in search of their first win of the season falling to 0-2overall.
Leading the way for Eastern Nazarene College was Chima Ezeigbo (Roanoke, Vir.) who led all scorers finishing with 21 points on 8-for-9 shooting from the field. Eastern Nazarene's Brian Hard (Weymouth, Mass.) finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Alex Jarman (Portsmouth, R.I.) chipped in 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Max Barbosa (Dorchester, Mass.) dished out a game-high eight assists to go along with four points and four rebounds.
Leading the way for NEC was Jonathan Byrnes (Bethel, Conn.) who led the Pilgrims in both scoring and rebounds with 16 points and five boards. NEC's Quentin Zawrotny (Orlando, Fla.) was the only other Pilgrim in double-figures finishing with 12 points.
Published: 11/17/2012 5:32:00 PM
