MILTON, Mass. - The Curry College men's basketball team dropped a 100-59 conference contest to visiting Endicott College at the Katz Gymnasium on Wednesday night. With the victory, the Gulls improve to 14-4 overall and 9-2 in the CCC. The Colonels fall to 1-17 overall and 0-11 in league action.
The Gulls wasted little time building a lead as they gained a 13-4 advantage on a made jump shot by Keith Brown (Pelham, N.H.) with 15:29 remaining in the first half. Brown would go on to score six of the next eight points to build a 23-4 lead.
The Colonels began to chip away at the lead when they went on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 21 following a three pointer by Jordan George-Bellitti (Cambridge, Mass.) with 6:04 to go in the first half.
The lead for the Gulls would reach 27, the largest of the first half after Brown knocked down a layup to give Endicott a 47-20 lead.
Curry closed the half by hitting three shots from distance to trim the lead to 23 heading into the locker room. Endicott led the Colonels 52-29.
The lead would balloon to over 30 on a layup by Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) at 64-33 with 15:54 to go in regulation.
The deficit would reach nearly 40 points for the Colonels after Vinny Clifford (Danvers, Mass.) converted two straight threes to extend the lead to 87-48 with under seven minutes to play.
Curry scored nine points over the final 3:43 of regulation as Endicott came out with the 100-59 victory. A layup by John Coleman (Warwick, R.I.), a three and a layup by Nick George (Rockland, Mass.), and two free throws by Bryan Tavares (East Providence, R.I.) capped the scoring for the Colonels.
Brown led the way off the bench as he tallied 20 points on 8-for-12 from the field, including 4-for-7 from distance. Clifford chipped in 18. Sampson registered a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds, including his 1,000th career point.
Thorpe-Johnson tallied 15 points in the defeat for the Colonels. The freshman shot 5-for-13 from the field, including 4-for-7 from three. George-Bellitti added 12 points off the bench to join Thorpe-Johnson as the only other Curry player in double figures.
Endicott shot 52.2% from the field for the contest while the Colonels shot at a 29.6% clip. The Gulls knocked down five more threes than Curry and made it to the line 11 more times than the home team. They also had the edge in rebounding, assists, points off turnovers, second chance points, points in the paint and bench points. The turnover battle was even as both teams committed 12 apiece.
Curry returns to action on Saturday when they head to Salve Regina for a 3 p.m. tip. Endicott will next play Saturday as they will travel to Wentworth for a 3 p.m. contest.
