Career Day At The FT Line For Motroni Pushes Endicott Past Middlebury, 82-76

BEVERLY, Mass. – A career day at the free-throw line for junior guard Max Motroni (West Warwick, R.I.) pushed the Endicott men's basketball team past visiting Middlebury College, 82-76, Saturday afternoon in the first non-conference action of 2016 inside MacDonald Gymnasium.

With the win, the Gulls snapped a two-game skid and improved to 5-5 overall, while Middlebury fell to 5-6 on the season.

Endicott took a 32-27 lead into the break at halftime behind a floor-leading eight points apiece from Motroni and junior guard Kamahl Walker (Worcester, Mass.).

In a game that saw four lead chances and five tied scores, Middlebury gained a five point lead with 12:38 to play, to go up 44-39 on a jumper in the paint by freshman guard Hilal Dahleh (Cambridge, Mass.), but the lead didn't last as Endicott went on a 10-1 run over the course of the next three minutes to take the lead for good.

The Gulls led by as much as 17, up 67-50 on a junior forward Chris Lipscomb (West Springfield, Mass.) free throw with 4:44 left in the game as the two squads really turned it up in the second stanza, combining to score 99 points in the final twenty minutes.

Motroni tied his single-game season-high with 22 points and pulled down six rebounds as he hit a career-high 16-of-18 from the stripe.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls placed three student-athletes in double figures, as Walker and junior forward Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) tallied 20 points and 16 points to join Motroni with 22, respectively.
• Walker extended his double-digit scoring streak to 22 games.
• The Gulls were season-high 31-of-37 at the free throw line, including 23-of-29 in the second half.
• Endicott had four student-athletes with at least six rebounds as Lipscomb grabbed seven off the glass to pace the squad.

FOR THE FOES

• The Panthers converted 6-of-11 from downtown in the second half to finish 8-of-17 from three point land as junior guard Matt St. Amour (Swanton, Vt.) made five of them on his way to a team-leading 21 points.
• Sophomore guard Jack Daly (Eastchester, N.Y.) and senior forward Connor Huff (New York, N.Y.) also scored in double figures as they chipped in 13 and 11 points, respectively.
• Daly led the team with nine rebounds.

NOTES

• The Gulls are now 1-2 all-time against Middlebury, as the most recent meeting before today was an 80-70 loss at home on Jan. 16, 1998.

WHAT'S NEXT

The Gulls (5-5) travel to face Curry College in their first CCC action of 2016 on Tuesday, January 5 at 7:30 p.m., while Middlebury (5-6) will host Southern Vt. on Monday, January 4 at 6:00 p.m. 

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