CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Lesley University junior Devon Mayo (Amherst, Mass.) scored 21 of his game- and career-high 35 points in the second half to lead the Lynx to a 83-79 comeback victory over Newbury College in New England Collegiate Conference Men's Basketball play tonight at the Nicholas Athletics Center. The Lynx trailed by as many as 15 in the second half before coming all the way back to earn a split in the season series with the Nighthawks.
Mayo knocked down 14-of-17 from the free throw line, three shy of the Lesley single game record for most freebies made in a game, while knocking down three triples on his way to his career-high output. The junior guard has been on fire of late and is now averaging 21.7 points over his last seven games played.
Classmate Pierre St. Simon (Farmingdale, N.Y.) followed Mayo with a career-high of his own, dumping in 18 points while corralling a game-high eight boards and swiping five steals. Fellow junior Terrell Toney (Lakewood, Wash.) added nine points while freshman William Cuffee (Amherst, Mass.) came off the bench to add four points, six rebounds, two assists, and four steals, one of which came in the final 15-seconds to help ice the game for the hosts.
Trailing by one with under a minute to play, Mayo came up with a huge offensive rebound which then allowed senior Chris Barletta (Valrico, Fla.) to drive the lane and bank-home a runner from the right side to put the hosts up 80-79. On the ensuing Nighthawks possession, Cuffee swiped the ball from Jeduan Langston (Boston, Mass.) in the paint forcing Newbury to foul. Barletta would knock down one of two from the line to give Lesley a two-point edge.
Newbury would race down the floor and a Dallas Serrano (Valley Stream, N.Y.) floater in the lane rimmed out with Lesley's Corbin Polec (Okemos, Mich.) pulling down the rebound before being tied up for a jump ball, with the possession arrow in favor of the hosts. Following a Lynx timeout, the Nighthawks fouled Mayo immediately on the inbounds pass, but the junior remained steady at the line knocking down both from the line to seal the 83-79 win.
Lesley had to come all the way back after being down by 15 in the early-goings of the second half. After taking a two point edge into the locker room at halftime, Newbury quickly pushed their lead into double-digits with a 15-2 run to open the second stanza. Juniors Devon Johnson (Manchester, Conn.), Joshua Oliver (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), and Ceejae Carter (Dorchester, Mass.) knocked down three straight triples to power the run which opened up a 63-48 lead for the guests.
The Lynx would quickly dwindle the deficit back to three over the next five minutes as they answered with a 14-2 run of their own capped by a Mayo three. Trailing 70-67 following a Cuffee layup, the Lynx would finally even the score at 70-70 with a Casey Blanchard (Bernardston, Mass.) triple before another Mayo trey two minutes later would give the hosts their first lead of the half, 75-72, with 4:25 on the clock.
The Nighthawks punched back with a 5-0 spurt to reclaim the lead with 2:18 to go, but it was not enough to bury the Lynx as the home team scored eight of the game's final ten points for the win.
Both teams will be back in NECC action on Saturday. The Lynx (3-14, 2-6 NECC) will welcome Daniel Webster College to Cambridge at 5:00p while the Nighthawks (2-13, 1-5 NECC) will play host to Wheelock College at 1:00p.