STANDISH, ME – Second-seeded Saint Joseph's College (17-9) outlasted #7 Suffolk University (9-17), 80-72, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinal contest at the Alfond Center on Tuesday night. Junior guard Steve Simonds (Steep Falls, Maine) scored a team-high 21 points off a 12-14 free-throw shooting effort in the triumph.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's returns to the semifinal round of the conference tournament for the fourth-straight season and will host #3 Johnson & Wales University – which toppled #6 Anna Maria College, 92-58, in other quarterfinal play tonight – at 7:30 PM on Thursday. The result signals the end of the 2013-14 campaign for Suffolk University.
The Monks opened the night as the top three-point shooting team in the conference with a 38.4% success rate while averaging 8.8 trifectas per contest, but the Rams flipped the script by draining a season-best 13 threes on 30 attempts on the evening. Saint Joseph's endured a difficult night from beyond the arc, shooting 20% (3-15) and essentially abandoned the three-point shot in the later stages of play.
The visitors' shooting performance – which included four players who made at least two treys – made it a much closer game than many may have anticipated as the Rams remained in the running until the closing minutes of the contest.
Saint Joseph's led for the majority of play in the first half and held a 30-20 cushion after Nicholas Jobin (Westbrook, Maine) capped an 8-2 outburst when he converted a traditional three-point play with 3:14 before the break. Suffolk quickly negated the SJC advantage however, as Sam Nwadike (Houston, Texas) notched a conventional three-point play of his own, hit on a shot from three-point distance, and assisted on a Caleb Unni (Winchester, Mass.) trifecta – all in a manner of two minutes – to cut the Monks' lead down to 32-29 going into intermission.
The Monks kicked off the second stanza with six unanswered points as a Simonds three-pointer lifted the hosts to a 38-29 cushion with 18:08 remaining. St. Joe's owned an upper hand of eight points or better until Adam Chick (Northbrook, Ill.) nailed a three to make it a 45-39 game exactly four minutes later.
Senior forward Krubiel Workie (Denver, Colo.), entering the contest for James Philbrook (Auburn, Maine), who had just drawn his third foul of the night, provided a brief spark off the bench for the Royal Blue with a bucket, a free throw and a key defensive rebound in his first two minutes of action. Workie's freebie put the Monks ahead by six (48-42) with 12:56 on the clock.
The lead quickly vanished as the Rams proceeded to mount a 13-4 run - which included a trio of trifectas - over the following four minutes, an outbreak that saw the visitors claim their first lead since the early portion of the opening period. Chris Williams (Bridgeport, Conn.) drained a three-pointer to lift his team to a 53-52 edge with 9:54 on the clock and Nwadike closed the run with a layup 42 seconds later to give the Rams a three-point advantage.
With the season on the line, the Monks adapted and responded with a 14-1 outburst to seemingly put the game away. Perhaps recognizing a mismatch under the bucket, Saint Joseph's was able to claim a 66-56 lead by netting 12 of the points on slashing drives in the paint. Jerome Diggs (Washington, D.C.) capped the run with a layup on an athletic play with 3:42 left.
Saint Joseph's extended the lead to 12 points (70-58) when Matthew Medeiros (Westport, Mass.) converted a layup with 1:58 remaining, but Suffolk refused to go down easily and remained in play by making three three-pointers over the closing 1:07 of play. Thankfully, an impressive 10-12 free-throw shooting performance by Simonds during the same span preserved the victory for the hosts.
Medeiros registered 15 points and nine rebounds, Jobin added 12 points and five boards, Zach Blodgett (Glenburn, Maine) scored nine and pulled down nine caroms – including six offensive boards – and Philbrook contributed eight points in the victory.
For the Rams, Nwadike netted a game-high 25 points with seven assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals, Williams scored 15, Curtis Casella (Saugus, Mass.) added 10 points in 17 minutes off the bench, and Chick chipped in with seven points in the losing bid.
Led by Simonds' effort, the Monks went 23-35 from the FT line – with both counting as the team's second-highest totals of the year - on the night and also posted a 39-28 lead on the glass, which led to a decided 40-20 advantage in points in the paint for the hosts.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
