Photo Courtesy: Bill DiLillo Photography
BROOKLINE, Mass. - The Southern Vermont College men's basketball team defeated the Newbury College Nighthawks Thursday evening, 65-63. Mountaineer junior Lance Spratling led the charge to victory with a game-high 19 points as he drained a three with six seconds remaining in the game.
Southern Vermont jumped out early in front of Newbury behind freshman guard Derrick Cenicola. Cenicola drained three of eight from behind the arc for nine points but the Nighthawks kept pace as freshman Rondell Best netted 10 of his team-high 15 points. But the Mountaineers took a two point, 32-30 lead into the locker room behind a lay-up by sophomore forward Cam Herrington.
Newbury mounted a valiant second half comeback. With nine minutes left in the contest and the Nighthawks down 50-47, senior Samuel Stanford hit a long trey to knot up the game but the Mountaineers answered. Spratling found senior Joe Karnik under the basket for the lay-up to re-gain the lead for Southern Vermont.
The last minute of the contest belonged to Spratling and Newbury freshman Timothy Young. When Young gave the Nighthawks the two point advantage with a jumper at 1:12, Spratling answered with a lay-up of his own. With less than 20 seconds to play Young re-gained the lead for Newbury but Spratling had the last word hitting a trey to give Southern Vermont the victory.
With the loss the Nighthawks fall to 3-4 in the conference and 5-12 overall while the Mountaineers improve to 2-4 in the NECC and 5-10 overall.
Southern Vermont College will return to the hard-court this Saturday when they host the Daniel Webster College Eagles for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off. Directly following the game, the SVC Alumni basketball game with take place with several 1000 point scorers and SVC Hall of Famer's planning to attend.