Men’s Basketball Downs UMass in Afternoon Thriller

PSU holds on despite huge halftime lead

By Kam Towle; For The Clock

On February 10, 2016

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Men’s Basketball Downs UMass in Afternoon Thriller

PSU holds on despite huge halftime lead

Kam Towle
For The Clock
kmt11@plymouth.edu

On Saturday, January 30th, the Plymouth State Men’s Basketball team welcomed UMass Dartmouth to Foley Gymnasium, grabbing their 13th win of the season over the LEC rival.

The Panthers started the game off with an impressive first half that ended with a deep, buzzer-beating three pointer by sophomore Brian Boulay (Keene, NH). After the half, the score was 57-38. UMass Dartmouth then fired back in the second half to make the score as close as it was.

Highlighting the Panthers attack on Saturday was senior Uche Nwokeji (Lynn, Mass.) who put up an impressive 31 points and a game-high 18 rebounds. Boulay added 22 points of his own and junior Curtis Arsenault (Berlin, NH) contributed 16 points, including 12 alone in the first half.

However, PSU’s victory was somewhat overshadowed by the performance of one of the players on the UMass Dartmouth Corsairs, and that would be of senior guard Jordan Rezendes (Onset, Mass.). Rezendes was striking on all cylinders throughout the entire game and it seemed like there were times he was unstoppable. He poured in 58 points on 18-of-26 shooting from the field and 17-of-18 from the foul line.

Despite the game ending in an over 11-minute stretch where no one else on UMass Dartmouth made a field goal besides Rezendes, the Panther’s more balanced attack seemed to shine through and get the team victory.

After a layup by Rezendes with 1:36 to play, the Plymouth State lead had been cut to just two, with the score abruptly sitting at 83-81. It was after this field goal where the Panthers stepped up their game and went on a little run, including two free throws and a layup by Nwokeji, and a final free throw by freshman Mike Osgood (Nashua, NH).

PSU held on for the 88-83 over rival UMass Dartmouth and improved their record to 13-7 and 7-3 at home. PSU and the Corsairs reached identical records in the LEC standings as they both sit at 4-5, but PSU will hold the tie-breaker as they have now beaten them twice this season. Plymouth State will be looking forward to continuing in LEC action this Saturday, February 6th, as they will take on