Men's Basketball edged by New England College, 85-75

(Henniker, N.H.) The Rivier University Men's Basketball team suffered an 85-75 setback this evening on the road against New England College in a non-conference contest in Henniker. NEC senior Dezron Wilson recorded his 1,000th career point finishing with a game-high 20 points as the Pilgrims even their overall record at 2-2. The loss drops the Raiders to 0-5 on the season.

Rivier senior Anthony Simmons (Stamford, Conn.) led all Raider scorers finishing with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field. Junior Kevin Francis (Cromwell, Conn.) chipped in 15 points, while freshman Isaiah Ruffen (Haverhill, Mass.) recorded a team-high seven rebounds to go along with eight points.

Rivier would build an 11 point lead early up 17-6 midway through the opening half. The Pilgrims would claw their way back into the game late in the half as they would use a 6-0 run late cutting the Raider lead to five but Rivier would close out the half with bucket from junior David Lorden (Pepperell, Mass.) and head into halftime up 31-24.

The Pilgrims would keep the Raiders close through much of the second half as NEC would grab their first lead of the game at the 10:57 mark thanks to a three-pointer by Jack Hostetler. NEC would feed of the momentum using an 8-0 run to build a sizable lead and never look back holding on for the eventual 85-75 victory.

In addition to his 20 points, Wilson pulled down eight rebounds and dished out five assists on the night. NEC's Jake Vickery chipped in 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting from beyond three-point range. Dondre James finished with a game-high 13 rebounds to go along with seven points and Shannon Murray finished with nine points and eight rebounds.

The Raiders were able to out shoot the Pilgrims, 40% to 37%, however NEC was able to control the glass with a 48-37 edge in total rebounds while finishing with 19 second chance points.

The Pilgrim bench came through with 46 points, while the Raiders got just 27 points from their bench.

Rivier will hit the court again on Tuesday, Dec. 1 when they travel to face Lasell College in the team's first Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest. New England College will be back in action on Sunday, Nov. 29 when they host non-conference opponent Suffolk University.