WENHAM, Mass.—Sam Johnson (Chatham, Mass.) smashed his career record with 27 rebounds to help lead Gordon to a cover-to-cover win over visiting Western New England. The Fighting Scots jumped out to an early double-digit lead and fending off a host of Golden Bear rallies to sweep the season series 74-59 at the Bennett Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon.
After a frustrating loss to Wentworth on Tuesday, Gordon came out firing from the start and built up a 19-5 lead before five minutes had passed. Jake Haar (Huntington Beach, Calif.) was steady as ever, making his first three attempts from deep with teammate Jaren Yang (San Francisco, Calif.) draining one himself.
Gordon's lead bounced between eight and 13 points for the next 10 minutes as the game slowed due to a combination of fouls and turnovers on both sides. The Fighting Scots led 34-21 with 2:20 to go in the first, but Western New England outscored the hosts 9-2 over the final spurt as miscues reared their ugly head.
Turnovers continued to be a problem in the second half for the Fighting Scots, allowing Western New England to slowly chip away until it was a 42-40 game with 15 minutes remaining in regulation. However, Noah Szilagyi (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) hit a deep three at the 14:24 mark to seemingly switch the Gordon offense back into gear.
The Golden Bears struggled to find a groove on offense, making just a third of their attempts from the floor for the game. Western New England was never able to get closer than four points for the rest of the game as the Scots were able to hold the Golden Bears' top four scorers to only 12 combined points.
Mike McCourt (Lincoln, R.I.) was the breadwinner for the Bears with 13 points, five boards and four steals in 23 minutes off the bench. Nana Appiah (Patterson, Calif.) was effective with 12 points, while Nick DeGennaro (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) had 10.
Johnson led the Fighting Scots in both rebounding and scoring. The senior bested his previous career high of 23 caroms collected with a monstrous 27 boards, nearly beating the Golden Bears (29 rebounds) by himself. Johnson also added 16 points for his 12th double-double of the season.
Szilagyi had his best game of the season with 15 points, including three made deep balls. He also had the second-best rebounding mark with five. Garrisson Duvivier (Brockton, Mass.) had a quiet night on offense, but still had five assists to go with five steals and four blocks. Yang scored nine with a game-high seven dimes.
Gordon overcame a season-high 27 turnovers.
The Fighting Scots (10-7, 7-3 CCC) head down to Quincy on Wednesday for a big showdown against Eastern Nazarene. The Scots edged the Lions in overtime during the first meeting in November, but ENC has crept up into the top half of the standings in the Commonwealth Coast Conference since then.
Western New England sees its record fall to 3-13 overall and 2-8 in the league with a home game against Salve Regina coming up on Wednesday.
- Johnson's 27 rebounds is tied for the best in a single game in Division III this season with Antonio Jones of Rust College in Tennessee.
