February 20, 2010
Raiders Finish Season on a High
Note
Nashua, NH- The Raiders (9-16, 6-12) ended their season with a
66-53 win over the visiting Lasell Lasers (10-15, 8-10). The
Raiders played solid defense during the game as they kept the
Lasers to just 34% (21-61) shooting from the floor, forced 16
turnovers, and grabbed 33 defensive rebounds. The Raiders
also shot the ball exceptionally well as they went 22-47(47%) from
the floor and 9-17(53%) from 3 point land.
Before the game, the Raiders recognized the parents of the
players and lone Senior Luke Brownell (Hubbardston,
MA), who played the last regular season and home game
of his Raider career. The Raiders got off to a fast start as
they took an early 6-5 lead, just three minutes into the
game. Justin Harris (New Orleans, LA) hit a couple of shots
to take the Lasers first lead of the game with 15 minutes to go in
the half. As the Lasers extended their lead to 5, junior
captain Don Poitras (Bow, NH) brought the Raiders
within 3 by getting 3 points the hard way as he converted a layup
and the free throw, but Charles Horton (Detroit, MI) came off the
bench and hit his first 3 pointer of the game to keep the Lasers in
front. After another layup by Poitras, Horton hit his second
3 pointer of the half for the Lasers for a 16-10 lead. After
a couple of free throws by Will Snyder (Brooklyn,
NY), Sophomore Joe Granato (Arlington,
MA) took the ball hard to the basket for an uncontested
layup to bring the score to 16-15 with just over 6 minutes to
go. The Lasers got a couple of easy baskets to go up 22-17
until Raiders went on a 14-1 scoring run to end the half with a
31-23 lead.
The second half started off by Dominik Orlow (Slupsk, Poland)
hitting a bucket inside which was countered by Brian Troy's
(Keene, NH) first 3 pointer of the game to extend the
Raiders lead 34-25. The Raiders then went on another 14 point
scoring run led by junior captain Nick Bean (E. Longmeadow,
MA), who hit back to back 3 pointers to extend the
Raiders lead to 22 with about 13 minutes to go in the game.
The Lasers slowly brought it back to within 10 after some good
defense that created a couple of Raider turnovers, but
that would be as close as they got as the Raiders continued
their good 3 point shooting with Bean and Granato each hitting
a 3 pointer to go up 61-49 with 6 minutes left. As the game
was coming to an end, the Raiders converted 5 of 7 free throws to
end the game with a final score of 66-53.
Poitras led the way for the Raiders as he got his 7th
double-double of the season by going 8-12 for 17 points and
grabbing 12 boards. Granato was lights out from behind the
arc as he went 4-6 for a total of 16 points on the afternoon.
Bean scored all of his 13 points in the second half by hitting
three 3-pointers and hit all 4 free throws he took.
Javon Williams (Mattapan, MA) led the way for the Lasers as he
was able to get his own double-double by scoring 15 points and
pulled down 12 boards. Orlow had 9 points in only 18 minutes
as he had to sit a lot due to foul trouble.
The Raiders have secured the 8th seed in the GNAC
which means they will be on the road at the 1st
seeded Albertus Magnus Falcons for their next
game as they head into the GNAC playoffs. The Lasers are
the 7th seed and will be going to 2 seed Emerson
College for their first playoff game.
