Men's Basketball falls by 6 at Saint Joseph's College

(Standish, Maine) A late surge by the Rivier University Men's Basketball team was not enough as they lost 56-50 to Saint Joseph's College in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference matchup on Saturday afternoon at the Harold Alfond Center. With the loss, the Raiders are now 7-14 overall on the season with a 4-10 GNAC mark. Saint Joseph's improved to 12-8 overall and 11-2 in the GNAC.

The Monks held the lead for the vast majority of play, but would not enjoy a double-digit advantage in the victory as the visiting Raiders maintained a two-possession deficit for most of the afternoon. The game was not decided until the hosts scored four unanswered points in the final 15 seconds, as junior Zach Blodgett (Glenburn, Maine) converted a layup on a nice drive to the bucket and Matthew Medeiros (Westport, Mass.) sank a pair of free throws to clinch the narrow win. Blodgett netted a game high 17 points in the triumph.

Saint Joseph's closed the first half on a nice scoring surge, as Medeiros capped an 8-4 run with a nifty tip-in off a Nicholas Jobin (Westbrook, Maine) miss as time expired to lift the hosts to a 33-26 cushion going into intermission. The Monks started the second stanza with a Jobin layup off a Jordan Tripp (Maspeth, N.Y.) feed to gain a 35-26 advantage, but the nine-point lead would be the game's largest, as the Raiders mounted a 10-2 outburst over the five minutes to cut their deficit down to 37-36. Senior forward Tom Poitras (Bow, N.H.) knocked down a three-pointer at the 14:52 mark to close out the run.

For Rivier, Poitras scored 15 with six boards and four steals, Nick Walch (Dedham, Mass.) tallied 10 points, four rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals, and Jake Nelson (Nashua, N.H.) contributed seven points and five caroms in a losing effort.

For Saint Joseph's fans, the remainder of the contest was tenuous at best, as the Raiders stayed within striking distance despite the Monks' tendency to sustain a narrow lead. Rivier trailed by two points on a pair of occasions late in the contest, but Saint Joseph's answered with layups both times, including the aforementioned Blodgett bucket which was scored with 12 seconds left.

Four players netted at least 10 points for the Monks in the victory, as Medeiros and Jobin scored 13 apiece and Steve Simonds (Steep Falls, Maine) contributed 10 points to join Blodgett on the hosts' top scorers list. Tripp played well with five rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals and senior forward James Philbrook (Auburn, Maine) added four rebounds on the afternoon.

Both teams return to the hardwood with contests versus GNAC foes on Tuesday evening when Saint Joseph's plays at Emmanuel College at 7:00 PM and Rivier hosts Norwich University in a 7:30 PM tip-off.