NEWTON, Mass. (1/15/14) – The Lasell College men's basketball team saw their five game winning streak snapped by visiting Johnson and Wales, 85-73 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action on Wednesday night. The loss dropped the Lasers to 7-5 on the season and 4-2 in GNAC play, while the victory pushed the Wildcats unbeaten streak to nine straight games as they improved to 10-4 overall and 6-1 in the conference.
Angel Ortiz (East Lyme, Conn.) led Lasell with 21 points off the bench and Clyde Niba (Atlanta, Ga.) finished with 17 points and a team-high eight rebounds. The Lasers shot a season-low 33.8% from the floor while connecting on eight of 25 attempts from beyond the arc.
Quarry Greenway (Westchester, N.Y.) recorded a double-double with a game-high 27 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Wildcats attack. Esaie Touzie (Providence, R.I.) chipped in 19 points and eight caroms and Robert Lewis (Providence, R.I.) finished with 17 points for Johnson and Wales. The Wildcats shot 58.5% from the field to offset their struggles from the charity stripe where they finished 19-34 for the contest.
Johnson and Wales opened the contest on a 17-6 run over the first six and a half minutes behind nine points from Greenway. A pair of free throws from Niba and a three pointer from Brandon Ganesh (West Palm Beach, Fla.) cut the visitors lead to 17-11 but JWU answered with nine straight points to push their advantage to 26-11.
Lasell cut the JWU edge to 35-22 on a lay-up by Sonny Mello with 4:37 remaining in the half but the Wildcats closed on with an 8-2 spurt to take a 43-24 lead into intermission.
The Wildcats pushed their lead to 50-27 on a three point play by Lewis before Lasell began to rally. Lasell used a 17-4 run, sparked by eight points by Ortiz and seven from Niba to close the gap to 54-44 with just under 11 minutes left in the contest. Lasell continued to battle but were unable to draw any closer and Johnson and Wales captured the 85-73 victory.
Johnson and Wales will host Norwich University on Saturday January 18th at 3:00 p.m. as they look to push their winning streak to double figures. Lasell will attempt to get back on track when they visit Mount Ida on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.