NEC Student-Athletes Post Career Records

Saturday’s men’s and women’s basketball match ups with Wentworth Institute of Technology were the perfect opportunity for two New England College student-athletes to post both personal and team records. Although Wentworth prevailed over the Pilgrims in both games (71-58 men’s and 43-37 women’s), Rachel Williams (Chapel Hill, NC) and Shane Hennessey (Plymouth, England) seized the moment to enter the College’s history books by realizing their career goals of 1,000 points on the same day.

For NEC senior and team captain Shane Hennessey, thirteen is his lucky number. Hennessey is the thirteenth student-athlete in program history to reach 1,000 career points and earned his mark in style. Entering the game with 18 points to go, he racked up 12 points in the last two minutes that included one hoop in the last 14 seconds. His impressive showing for the day included a total of 19 points and 11 rebounds. During his four-year career at New England College, Hennessey has played in 98 games averaging 10.2 points and 7.3 rebounds each game. With Saturday’s final game of the season, NEC’s men’s basketball team finished with a 17-8 overall and a 6-7 in conference play.

NEC junior Rachel Williams earned the two points that she needed to reach her 1,000 point goal with two foul shots in the first half of Saturday’s game. As the second foul shot cleared the hoop, Williams became the first player, female or male, in NEC history to earn that accomplishment in just two seasons. She also takes her spot in the NEC records as the ninth female player in College history to earn 1,000 points. In conference play, Williams ranked as one of the top scorers in both the TCCC and the NCAA this season with an average of 22.4 points a game. As a sophomore, she led The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) in scoring and earned TCCC First Team All-Conference honors. The NEC women’s basketball team finished their season with an overall record of 12-13 and 5-8 in conference play.