Men's Basketball Drops OT Thriller To WNE, 83-82

BEVERLY, Mass. — The Endicott men's basketball team fell to Western New England, 83-82, in overtime in Saturday afternoon's Conference of New England (CNE) clash from MacDonald Gymnasium.

Marcus Montagnino (Gloucester, Mass.) led the way with a monster 32-point, eight-rebound, four-assist, one-steal, and one-block effort in 40 minutes on the floor.

Elijah Kinney (Nashville, Tenn.) accompanied him as the only other Endicott multi-digit scorer with his 14-point (3-8 FG, 8-8 FT), 11-rebound, three-assist, and one-steal showing.

Matt Boen (Mansfield, Mass.) and Parker McLaren (Newburyport, Mass.) each returned to action and provided a big lift to the Gulls on both ends of the floor. Boen posted seven points, five rebounds, and two steals, while McLaren chipped in five points (2-4 FG, 1-3 3PT), four boards, and two steals.

A competitive first half headed to break after Cam Keliher (South Hampton, N.H.) buried a corner triple to put the Gulls back within a possession, 32-30. The Golden Bears clung onto a 33-30 advantage after splitting a pair of free throws prior to the buzzer sounding.

To open the second stanza, the two teams traded baskets over the first six minutes of play. Back-to-back triples from Montagnino and Boen pushed the needle back towards the Blue and Green's direction, cutting the deficit to two. 

From there, they sprung loose for a nine-to-nothing run spearheaded by back-to-back buckets from Montagnino and a corner triple from AJ Forte (Peabody, Mass.) to take a 47-42 lead. 

The Endicott defense continued to stifle the Golden Bears, holding them to just 10 points between the 15:20-6:18 marks of the second half (27-10 run in that stretch).

However, the Golden Bears awoke and erased Endicott's 13-point advantage after a full-court press and some timely three-point shooting from Brian Geitner (Tolland, Conn.). They even took a two-point lead after Tim Restall (Tolland, Conn.) secured a putback, and-one effort with just five seconds remaining.

Trailing by two, Montagnino drove downhill to the rim and drew contact with just 0.5 seconds remaining to earn a trip to the charity stripe. He converted both free throws to knot the game at 76 apiece and send the game into overtime.

After each team opened the overtime period with four points (80-80), a clutch triple from Restall put the Golden Bears up 83-80 with 1:52 remaining. 

Endicott responded with two free throws from Kinney, and then forced a WNE miss after some nice perimeter defense with just under a minute remaining.

Unfortunately, the Gulls were unable to find a game-winner, and WNE held on for a wild 83-82 overtime victory.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls still hold a 19-14 lead in the all-time matchup between the two teams.
• Prior to this evening, Boen had not played since 11/23/24 at Tufts (back injury), and McLaren had not played since 12/7/24 vs Gordon (ankle).
• Endicott shot a stellar 85.2% (23-27) from the free-throw line.
• The contest featured seven ties and five lead changes throughout.
• Montagnino's 32 points tie his career-high mark.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (7-6, 4-2 CNE) heads to Roger Williams on Wednesday, January 15 for a 7:30 PM CNE matchup. Western New England (10-3, 6-0 CNE) hosts Gordon on Wednesday in a 7:30 PM CNE contest. 

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(Photo Credit - Kaeli Talora '25)