Lasell's Comeback Falls Short at St. Joe's

Lasell's Comeback Falls Short at St. Joe's

STANDISH, ME - Saint Joseph's (18-7, 12-6 GNAC) defeated the GNAC top seed Lasell College (17-8, 14-4)81-74 on Saturday afternoon.  The Monks balanced attack was to much for the Lasers to handle as   Tyler Kelley paced St. Joes with 12 points, shooting 5 for 8 and Ray Eatmon pitched in 10 to go along with a game high 13 rebounds. Lasers' guard Junior Sainval  (Miami, FL) made five three-pointers and netted a game-high 19 points in the defeat.

The game started out at a quick pace with both teams looking to run up and down the floor.  The Monks jumped out to an early 4-0 lead with two straight baskets from senior Mitch Ouellet, but the Lasers responded by going on a 7-0 run, with the help of two buckets from freshman Javon Williams (Mattapan, MA). The game continued to be back and forth with the teams trading baskets, but at the 11:41 mark Charles Horton (Worcester, MA) connected on long range three to push Lasell's lead to 19-12.

The Monks then responded by going on a 17-0 in the next five minutes to take control of the game.  Hot outside shooting from Chris Petzy and Elbie Murphy made Lasell's defense stretch and opened up the lane for drives by Scot Vachon.  The Monks lead reached 29-19 with just over six minutes to go in the first half.

After a timeout the league's top scorer, Lasers' forward Jose Guitian (Miami, FL), finally scored his first basket of the game and sparked a quick 7-2 by Lasell to cut the lead to 31-26 with two minutes to go.  However St. Joes responded with a 7-2 run of their own to head into halftime with a 38-28 lead.

The Lasers effort wasn't much better coming out of the break.  The Monks out played Lasell in the first minute and pushed their lead to 20.  Another time out was called which looked to wake up Lasell. The Lasers went on a quick 16-4 run led by Sainval and Brad Caravoulias (Dracut, MA) hitting their shots from deep.  The Monks had watched their lead fall to 70-63 with five minutes to go.

Lasell picked up the defensive pressure and was forcing turnovers, but just could not convert.  The Monks kept the Lasers in the game by going 5-9 from the foul line in the last two minutes and back to back three's from Guitian closed the cap to 5 with 10 seconds left, but there was just not enough time and the Monks ended a perfect senior day by defeating the number one team in the league.

The story of the game was shooting percentage.  St. Joe's shot 50.8% (31-61) from the field and 9-17 (52.9%) from three-point distance. Lasell went 26-71 (36.6%) from the floor, and shooting 12-36, 33.3% from behind the arc.

With the win, St. Joe's clinches the #3 seed and will host #6 Rivier College (14-11, 9-9 GNAC) in GNAC quarterfinal matchup. Lasell had already clinched the top spot earlier in the week and will host #8 Norwich University (7-18, 5-13 GNAC) on Tuesday.

Sainval finished with 5 threes and a game high 19 points.  Guitian finished with 16 points and 11 boards, Williams had 10 and 5 and Caravoulias had 15 and 6.  Kevin Richard (New Orleans, LA) dished out a game high 10 assists as well.

Story by Nick Dubay, Sports Information Intern