PAXTON, Mass.—Senior Patrick Bradanese (Billerica, Mass.) scored a game-high 32 points as the Anna Maria College men's basketball team downed the Monks of Saint Joseph's College, 78-62, in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action on Saturday afternoon.

Win the win, the AMCATS improve to 14-11 overall and 10-8 in league play, while Saint Joseph's falls to 8-17 overall and 5-13 in GNAC action.

AMCAT LEADERS

Bradanese scored his 32 points on an 11-21 shooting effort with six three-pointers and a 4-for-5 effort at the free-throw line. Fellow seniors Tyler Delorey (Worcester, Mass.) and Corey Pryor (Whitinsville, Mass.) both added 13 points apiece.

Senior Pedro Trindade (Billerica, Mass.) led the team on the boards with nine rebounds. Classmate Kyle McKissick (Charlton, Mass.) added six rebounds.

SAINT JOSEPH'S LEADERS

The Monks were paced by Quinn Richardson-Newton (Saco, Maine) with 13 points, followed by Ian Mileikis (Auburn, Mass.) with 11 points and Craig Luschenat (Boston, Mass.) with 10. Mileikis also tallied a team-best eight rebounds.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The AMCATS scored their first nine points of the game on three-pointers, as Delorey hit two and Pryor hit another to get the pendulum swinging in Anna Maria's favor. Anna Maria never trailed in the game, and took their largest lead of the first half on a layup by Bradanese at the 4:45 mark to go up by 15 points, 32-17. A scoring stretch for the Monks in the final four minutes would cut the deficit to 10 points as the AMCATS led 41-31 at half.

Anna Maria opened the second half with an 8-0 run until Mikeikis hit a three-pointer for the Monks first points of the half. The AMCATS would hold Saint Joseph's scoreless for a two-minute stretch following a free-throw by Richardson-Newton at the 17:29 mark, which allowed Anna Maria to build a 20-point lead.

Anna Maria would take their largest lead of the day, 31 points at 78-47, on a three-pointer by Bradanese at the 4:33 mark. The AMCATS cleared the bench at that time and the Monks held the AMCAT substitutes scoreless for the remainder of the game while scoring 15 points of their own.

FINAL COMPARISONS

Anna Maria topped the Monks in four-out-of-five scoring categories: points in the paint (31-28), points off turnovers (25-16), second-chance points (15-6), and fast-break points (11-6). The Monks saw a 19-16 advantage in bench points.

The Monks finished with a 44.0 percent shooting effort (22-50), while Anna Maria finished at 41.5 percent (27-65). Anna Maria dominated the boards with a 43-32 advantage in rebounds.

GNAC POSTSEASON

Both teams have qualified for the GNAC Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday. The Monks secured the eighth seed and will travel to top-seeded Johnson & Wales for a 7:30 p.m. start, while fourth-seeded Anna Maria will host No. 5 Emmanuel at 7:00 p.m. at the Fuller Center.

COURTESY OF ANNA MARIA COLLEGE SPORTS INFORMATION

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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 474-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.