Gulls Recover From Slow Start To Put Away Wentworth, 67-61

BOSTON— The Endicott men's basketball team overcame a slow start to come away with 67-61 win at Wentworth Institute of Technology Saturday afternoon inside Tansey Gymnasium in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action.

Wentworth began the game with a 7-0 run—its largest lead of the game—with 17:40 on the clock and led the entire first stanza.

Just like that, the Gulls found themselves down, 25-24, at the halftime for their lowest output in any half this season in a conference matchup.

In a tale of two halves, Endicott was able to push aside its first half woes and responded with a strong effort, including a 15-0 run that proved to the the turning point in the game as the Gulls went from trailing 32-26 at 16:56 to leading 41-32 at the 13:42 mark and never looked back.

Senior forward Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) and freshman guard Keith Brown (Pelham, N.H.) combined for over half of Endicott's scoring with 17 points apiece in the contest.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls are 24-10 against the Leopards in the all-time series, including a 10-6 ledger on the road.
• Endicott swept the regular-season series, as the Gulls earned a 76-67 victory in the previous meeting on 01/03/17 earlier this year.
• Endicott's largest lead of the game was an 11-point margin with 50 seconds remaining in the game.
• Sampson grabbed a team-high six rebounds as the Gulls pulled down a season-low 26 boards.
• 24 points in the first half ties Endicott's lowest output of the season (24 in the first half against Babson and 24 in the second half against the University of Southern Maine).
• Senior guard Kamahl Walker (Worcester, Mass.) chipped in 14 points to join Sampson and Brown in double figures.

FOR THE FOES

• The Leopards had three student-athletes in double figures as senior guard Dan DeVaux (Wethersfield, Conn.) scored a game-high 21 points, followed by 16 points from junior forward Jason Ganley (Northbridge, Mass.) and 12 by junior guard Ben Kitzel (Short Hills, N.J.).
• Freshman forward Matt Vartanian (Salem, N.H.), junior forward Michael Boaheng (Worcester, Mass.), freshman forward Stephen Azums (Hyde Park, Mass.), and junior guard Sam Knollmeyer (Hampton, N.H.) matched Endicott's Sampson with a game-high six rebounds each.
• Wentworth out-rebounded Endicott, 42-26, but turned the ball over more than twice as many times as the Gulls (24-10).

WHAT'S NEXT

The Gulls (15-4, 10-2 CCC) host the University of New England to MacDonald Gymnasium on Tuesday, January 31st at 5:30 p.m in the "White Out" game sponsored by Gull Revolution. Gulls' fans are encouraged to wear the color white. There will also be a Hungry Hungry Hippos contest taking place at halftime.

Wentworth (8-11, 6-6 CCC) welcomes Eastern Nazarene to its campus on Tuesday, January 31st at 7:30 p.m.

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