Endicott wins the battle of 3-2 teams in the TCCC; defeat Hawks 68-62

Boxscore

Beverly, Mass. – Double-doubles from juniors Erik Callo (Southington, Conn.) and Aaron Karkow (Uncasville, Conn.) lifted the Endicott men’s basketball team to a 68-62 victory over Roger Williams University in TCCC action Thursday evening.

Callo turned in an 11-point, 13 rebound performance with four blocks on the defensive end while Karkow dropped 10 points and grabbed 10 boards for the Gulls (12-6, 4-2 TCCC). 

Roger Williams (11-7, 3-3 TCCC) senior forward Taylor Petruccelli (Stratford, Conn.) paced the Hawks with 14 points and six rebounds while sophomore shooter Mike Engemann (Red Bank, N.J.) was a spark off the bench with 12 points, including 3-of-8 from beyond the arc.

Endicott, while they controlled the boards with a 49-36 rebounding advantage, got a stellar scoring performance out of sophomore Lance Greene (Dorchester, Mass.). The guard netted a game-high 19 points on 6-of-8 from the floor, including a three-pointer, and added 6-of-10 from the charity stripe to lead the Blue and Green. Green was also active on the glass with seven rebounds, four of them offensive, and chipped in with defensively with three steals. 

In the first half, Endicott shot a high-percentage from the field by hitting 11-of-28 attempts (47.8%) as a team compared to just 9-of-32 makes (28.1%) by the Hawks, but still only a managed 27-23 lead at halftime. Endicott, however, committed nine turnovers which helped Roger Williams stay in the game. Gulls guard Lachlan Magee (Melbourne, Australia) scored seven of Endicott’s 27 points in the half.

Lance Greene took over the second half with 15 of his 19 points and sophomore Hayden Palozej (Stafford Springs, Conn.) played 15 minutes of strong defensive in a high-paced second period. Hawks senior guard Corey Fava (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) scored eight points with two assists and a steal in the half. Roger Williams as a team got to the line often, hitting 12-of-15 free throw attempts, but the Hawks could not erase the Endicott lead. The lead was cut to as low as three points with under a minute remaining but free throws by Greene solidified the Endicott win. 

Roger Williams held a 23-16 advantage in bench points while Endicott held a slight lead in points in the paint, 22-18. 

Endicott will return to action on Saturday, January 29^th for a 3:00 pm rematch with Gordon College in TCCC play. Roger Williams travels up to Colby-Sawyer College on the same day for a 1:00 pm tip-off.