CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Matt Gibson (Quincy, Mass.) celebrated his Senior Night at Lesley the right way, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the first half to lead the Lynx to a 76-64 win over Southern Vermont College in the season finale at Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols. With the win, Lesley finishes the season with a 9-16 record, including going 7-9 in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action. The Mountaineers finish up at 1-24 and 1-15 in the NECC.
Gibson, who went 6-of-9 from the floor, was one of four Lynx players in double-figures on the Night. Junior Mike Kaufman (Boca Raton, Fla.) finished with a team-high 17 while freshmen Nikalus Oliver (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) and Anthony Mattocks (Sarasota, Fla.) added 16 and ten points, respectively.
For SVC, senior guard Taeshon Johnson (Charlotte, N.C.) finished his career with an impressive performance, going for a game-high 24 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Travis Severs (Bennington, Vt.) added 12 points, two boards, and two assists in the losing effort.
The first half was all Lesley as they connected on their first four three-point attempts as they raced out to an early 17-4 lead. The hot shooting would continue as they nailed 50% of their attempts over the first twenty minutes. Kaufman came off the bench to score ten points in ten minutes in the half while Gibson was 5-of-6 to start the game. It looked like this one was wrapped up early as Lesley doubled-up SVC 42-21 going into halftime.
The teams would exchange buckets over the first eight minutes of the second half and Lesley held a commanding 59-40 lead with 8:41 left to play. From there the Mountaineers would start to climb back, scoring seven unanswered and ten of the next 12 points to cut the lead down to 11, 61-50. They would cut it to single-digits as Johnson took advantage of a Mattocks turnover with 6:32 left.
The Lynx would put their lead back to 11 after a Justin Rosa (East Brunswick, N.J.) layup, but Sever answered right back as he would score five straight points to cut it the Lesley lead back down to seven with just over two minutes to play. That's as close as it would get as Lesley's foul shooting was clutch in the closing minutes as they connected on 9-of-12 from the charity stripe to close out a 76-64 win.
After going 7-of-14 from deep in the first half, Lesley failed to connect from three in the second as they missed all eight of their attempts.
Rosa and junior forward Kris Bennett (Inglewood, Calif.) each added six points for Lesley while Gibson added a team-high four assists in the win.
