Newton, MA- The Lasell College men's basketball team hosted the 24th ranked Falcons of Albertus Magnus on Saturday afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference match up. The Falcons outscored the hosts 43-34 in the second half to pull out a 76-73 victory. The Falcons improved to 16-0 in the GNAC and 22-1 overall while Lasell fell to 9-7 in conference and 10-13 overall.
Javon Williams(Mattapan, MA) led the Lasers with 27 points and nine rebounds. Sean Bertanza(Seymour, CT) added 19 points and Nate DiSessa(Westfield, MA) had 10 points in the loss. Ray Askew(Hamden, CT) totaled a career high 52 points and added ten rebounds, while shooting 16 of 33 from the field 19 of 29 from the free throw line.
The Lasers built a 39-33 lead at the half, shooting 48.4% from the field, and holding the visitors to 31.2% shooting. Askew was the lone source of offense for the visitors, tallying 27 points in the opening 20 minutes. Javon Williams led the Lasell attack scoring 19 points on 7-9 shooting from the field and 5-6 at the free throw line.
Lasell used a 10-2 run to start the half, to build a 49-35 lead with 17:49 remaining. A Sean Bertanza steal and layup with 14:31 remaining gave Lasell their biggest lead of the contest at 57-41. Albertus Magnus answered with a 19-0 run over the next five and a half minutes, to take a 60-57 lead with 8:40 left in the contest.
Javon Williams stopped the Falcons run at 8:24 with a layup, and a Bertanza layup with seven minutes remaining put Lasell back on top 61-60. The lead changed five times over the next three minutes of action, before Ray Askew knocked down two free throws to give the visitors a 69-65 lead with 3:30 remaining.
Three point baskets by Nate DiSessa and Sean Bertanza sandwiched around an Askew layup tied the game at 71 with 2:09 on the clock. Askew scored in the post to make it a 73-71 Falcons advantage, and after a Lasers' turnover Arshad Jackson(Hartford, CT) made one of two free throws to extend the lead to 74-71. Bertanza answered with a tough pull-up jumper to cut the deficit to one, but Jackson answered with a drive to put AMC back up three with 18 seconds to play. After a Lasell timeout, Bertanza missed a three to tie, and after an offensive rebound DiSessa saw his three point attempt fall short as time expired.
Lasell will host Emmanuel College on Tuesday, February 14th at 7pm, when they will honor seniors Javon Williams and Nate DiSessa as they play their final regular season home game.