HENNIKER, N.H. – New England College men’s basketball guard Jason Minerve (Narre Warren, Australia) finished with a game-high 17 points, going 4-for-5 from beyond three-point range in leading the New England College Pilgrims past the visiting Curry College Colonels 77-66 Thursday evening. With the win the Pilgrims improve to 16-4 overall and 5-3 in conference play. The loss drops the Colonels to 4-16 on the season and 2-6 in the conference.
The two teams would battle closely through the opening 10 minutes of the game as the two teams would exchange leads five times. The Pilgrims would begin to pull away late in the opening half as a 12-4 run would give them the 29-18 lead with 5:33 remaining on the clock. The Colonels would respond by cutting the lead to seven, but NEC’s Troy Prather (Claremont, Calif.) would hit a break-away layup as time expired in the opening half giving NEC a 40-31 halftime lead.
NEC would extend its lead to 15 points early in the second half of play, but Curry would answer with a 12-2 run trailing just 52-47 at the 14:18 mark. Curry would continue to battle as a layup by Abel Ribeiro (Charlestown, Mass.) would get the Colonels within four with 5:54 left in regulation.
NEC would regain their lead as a 10-2 run in the final minutes would give the Pilgrims a 13-point lead with less than two minutes on the clock. The Colonels would score the final two buckets of the game but it would not be enough to offset the Pilgrims, who shot 47% from three-point range on the night.
NEC’s Shane Hennessey (Plymouth, England) finished the game with 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while senior Joe Faragher (North Ridgeville, Ohio) was the only other Pilgrim in double-figures finishing with 14 points.
Leading the way for Curry College was Kenny Hull (Somerset, Mass.) who scored a team-high 11 points and Michael Connery (Narragansett, R.I.) who chipped in 10 points. Curry’s Chris Bonadies (Medfield, Mass.) grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to go with eight points and Jarrell Jackson (Brockton, Mass.) dished out a game-high six assists.
NEC returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 5 when they travel to take on conference opponent Western New England College. Curry will hit the court on Saturday as well when they host conference foe Eastern Nazarene College. (Game recap courtesy of NEC Sports Information)
