PSU Men’s Basketball Continues to Roll at Lesley

PSU Men’s Basketball Continues to Roll at Lesley

Preston’s Monster double-double, Arsenault’s shooting lifts Panthers in Cambridge

Kam Towle
For The Clock
kmt11@plymouth.edu

On Monday, November 30th, the 5-0 Plymouth State Men’s Basketball team traveled on the road to take on Lesley College. Lesley was a team going in the opposite direction, coming into the game with an 0-6 record.

Plymouth State was the team who came out ready and firing. They started the game on a 10-0 run, featuring five quick points from Curtis Arsenault (Berlin, NH), a jumper from Brian Boulay (Keene, NH), and a layup and a free-throw added by Jack Preston (Nashua, NH). Following this run by the Panthers, Lesley College went on a scoring binge of their own. They responded quickly with a 16-4 run and found themselves with the lead at 16-14 with 11:51 left in the first half.

The game of runs continued throughout the first half, with both teams making runs back-and-forth, and the score was all knotted up at 41 after Lesley’s Pierre St. Simon made a layup as the time expired.

Junior Nate Clarke (Reading, Mass.) started the second half off with a three-point jumper, and once again it was PSU who had a fast start, as they would start the half off with six consecutive points.

After a free-throw and layup on back-to-back possessions by Junior Devon Mayo, Lesley was trailing right behind Plymouth, with the score at 57-54 with 12:43 remaining in the second half. Panthers responded with scores on back-to-back possessions of their own, with Preston connecting on a mid-range jump-shot and Boulay draining a three-pointer with 9:24 left in the game to push their lead to 66-57.

Ernie Johnson (Springfield, Mass.) made a layup for PSU with 3:58 left to help maintain the Panther lead. After this layup, Lesley went on a 6-2 run and saw themselves only down three with 2:14 to play, with a score of 78-75.

It was at this time where a clutch, 9-2 run by the Panthers ended up proving to outlast Lesley College, winning with a final score of 87-77.

The final 9-2 run by Plymouth featured Uche Nwokeji (Lynn, Mass.) contributing three lay-ups and a freethrow, and Preston throwing down a tip-slam on a missed layup by Clarke.

For Plymouth State, Preston had a dominant game with 22 points, 23 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 4 steals. Nwokeji scored 20 points and added 13 rebounds, while Arsenault had a game-high 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting to go along with seven boards and four steals.

Lesley had four players obtain double digits in Monday’s contest. Mayo led their team with 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench. St. Simon, Charlie Reznikoff, and Xeo Golding each added 15 a piece for Lesley.

These teams continue to go in opposite directions, with Plymouth improving to 6-0 and Lesley dropping to 0-7. Plymouth is back in action on Thursday night as thy will host Lyndon State College at 7:30 pm, with scores unavailable for press time.

COURTESY PHOTO/ PSU ATHLETICS

Junior Curtis Arsenaut makes a move to the basket