Walch, Men's Basketball power past Mount Ida

(Newton, Mass.) The Rivier University Men's Basketball team used a strong second half effort as they scored 42 points en route to a 62-42 win over Mount Ida College at the Mount Ida College Athletic Center on Tuesday night.

The win improves the Raiders record to 5-6 overall and more importantly 2-2 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference. Mount Ida falls to 3-7 on the season and a 1-3 mark in the GNAC.

The Mustangs led by two points at the break, but were outdone by a Raiders team that shot 53.3% after halftime and were led by a game-high 25 points from senior Nick Walch (Dedham, Mass.), who scored sixteen in the final twenty minutes.

Walch and senior Tom Poitras (Bow, N.H.) each had eleven rebounds and Poitras added twelve points on 4-for-7 shooting from the field and 4-for-5 at the three point line to match Walch's double-double effort.

Sophomore Cullen Donovan (Wethersfield, Conn.), who had six points for the Raiders, helped Rivier jump out to a 17-8 lead before Macklin hit a three-point jump shot and Michael Joseph (Windsor, Conn.) added a layup. The teams then went nearly four minutes without scoring but the Mustangs continued their run with two fast-break layups by freshman Ethan Dujon (Warwick, RI), and were able to take a lead into the break after closing the half on a 14-3 run.

The second half was all Rivier, however, and they began by scoring the first ten points of the period to take the lead for good. The Mustangs made just two of seventeen attempts from behind the three-point line and shot 27.1% by the end of the night.

Mount Ida was within five points at 36-31 just over seven minutes into the half, but a 17-2 run by the Raiders put the game out of reach by the five minute mark.

Dujon finished the game with a team high 14 points and six rebounds to lead the hosts. Treace Macklin (Brockton, Mass.) added 12 points and two assists in the losing effort.

Rivier returns to the Muldoon Gymnasium as they will host Albertus Magnus College in a 7pm GNAC contest on Thursday evening. Mount Ida will also be in GNAC action as they host Emmanuel College.