Championship Game
Rivier College – 75
Colby-Sawyer – 63
Nashua, NH - It was a tale of two halves as the Rivier College Raiders came up with a 75-63 win against Colby-Sawyer College today in the championship game of the Rivier College All Metals Industries/Coca-Cola Tip Off Tournament. Senior center Don Poitras (Bow, NH) had a game high 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Raiders, going 9-12 from the field and adding 2 assists en route to the 12 point victory.
For the second straight game the Raiders jumped out to an early 8-0 lead before the Chargers were able to get their first bucket. Rivier then went on another 9-0 run to put the home team up 17-2 with just over 13 minutes to play in the first half. It wasn't long until back to back three pointers by Joe Granato (Arlington, MA) and Nick Bean (E. Longmeadow, MA) gave the home team a 35-10 advantage that had the visiting team scratching their heads about how to control the Raiders. The Raiders finished the half with a Bean jumper with time expiring to take a 48-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Colby-Sawyer came out of the locker room with a whole new approach to the second half, pound the ball inside and get the Raiders starters into foul trouble. 10 Raider fouls in the first 10 minutes of the second half forced the Raiders to play both tentative and with their bench as the Chargers were going to the foul line on every Rivier foul for the rest of the game. A 10-0 run by the Chargers, capped off by a Will Bardaglio (Wayne, ME) three pointer pulled the Chargers inside of 20 points for the first time since the 9:10 mark in the first half, 59-40. That spurt was followed again by a 12-3 run for the Chargers, with freshman Robbie Burke (Chesire, ME) getting 6 of those points from the free throw line, making the score 62-52 with 9:43 to play. The Raiders were able to once again add to their cushion with some tough play by the bench. Brian Troy (Keene, NH) and Mike Polley (Nashua, NH) each added points along with starter Will Snider (Brooklyn, NY) to push the lead to 68-52 in favor of the home team. Good defense and rebounding for the rest of the game gave the Raiders all they needed to hold off the surging Chargers, using the entire shot clock on each possession until the final buzzer. The Chargers outscored the Raiders 42-27 in the second half, but it wasn't enough to erase the big first half deficit as the Raiders finished with the 75-63 win.
Poitras' 20 points led the Raiders and fellow senior captain Nick Bean added 19 points for Rivier. Elisha Robinson (Proctor, VT) added 8 points with Will Snider and Tom Poitras (Bow, NH) chipping in with 7 points each, Snider also had a team high 7 assists. Mike Polley and Brian Troy played well off the bench and senior Matt Nims (Weare, NH) came up with some big defensive plays down the stretch to help the foul ridden Raiders hang onto the win.
Colby-Sawyer freshman Robbie Burke led his team with 15 points and grabbed a team high 7 rebounds. Bardaglio added 14 points and sophomore Corey Willis (Easton, MA) chipped in with 10 points and 3 assists.
The Raiders improve to 2-1 on the young season while the Chargers fall to 1-2. The Raiders will play next after the Thanksgiving break when they host GNAC foe Norwich University on Wednesday, Dec. 1st at 7:00 PM.
All-Tournament Team
Nick Bean Rivier - MVP
Don Poitras Rivier
Corey Willis Colby-Sawyer
Robbie Burke Colby-Sawyer
Chris Hanson Daniel Webster
Frank Stortini Bard
