Cambridge, MA – Newbury College forward Steve Rosemond (Everett, MA) knocked down four threes and had a team-high 19 points as the Nighthawks pulled out a 65-57 win over Lesley in New England Collegiate Conference play. The Nighthawks improve to an even 6-6 on year, but remain a perfect 4-0 in the NECC. The Lynx fall to 3-10 on the year and to 1-3 in the conference.
Senior Tim Young (Brockton, MA) and junior Kwame Thompson (Brockton, MA) were each in double-figures as well for the Nighthawks as they had 14 and 11 points, respectively. Senior center Peterson Bernard (Boston, MA) was huge on the glass for Newbury, pulling down a game-high 19 rebounds, including seven at the offensive end.
Senior point guard Matt Gibson (Quincy, MA) had a game-high 20 points for Lesley, going 8-of-12 from the floor and 3-of-6 from three-point range. Freshman forward Nikalus Oliver (Pembroke Pines, FL) picked up a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds and had a game-high two blocks while junior center Kris Bennett (Inglewood, CA) added ten points of his own to go with four rebounds.
Newbury got out to a commanding 18-4 lead behind the sharp shooting of Rosemond and Young, each of whom hit two threes during the run, and Bernard who recorded four points and four rebounds in the opening ten minutes.
Lesley used the deep ball to battle back as Gibson knocked down two from deep to spark a 12-3 run of their own to cut the deficit down to five. With the score 21-16, the Nighthawks got a made free throw from Rosemond and consecutive layups from Bernard to push the lead back to double-digits, 26-16.
The Lynx answered right back with a 5-0 run themselves in the final forty-seconds of the half off a layup from freshman forward Rudy Pean (Melbourne, FL) and a buzzer-beating three from Gibson.
Lesley carried that momentum over to the early goings of the second half and captured their first lead of the game on a put-back from Bennett with 16:33 left to play.
Newbury took that lead back on consecutive layups by Bernard and junior forward Adam James (Queens, NY) and sparked an 11-2 run, extending their lead back to double-digits.
Lesley got the lead down to four when sophomore Justin Rosa (East Brunswick, NJ) picked off a pass and hit Gibson for a fast-break layup with 2:36 left, but it wasn't enough as Newbury then scored the next six points en route to the 65-57 win.
Newbury's free-throw shooting was clutch down the stretch as they knocked down 9-of-12 in the final two minutes.
The Lynx struggled as a team from three-point range, making just 5-of-20 on the night while the Nighthawks went 10-21 from deep.
Both teams return to NECC action on Tuesday, January 15th as Lesley will travel to Southern Vermont College for a 6:00p tip-off while Newbury will play host to Elms. Game-time for that contest is slated for 7:00p.