No. 21 Men's Basketball Downs Gordon, 86-60

WENHAM, Mass. — The No. 21 nationally ranked Endicott men's basketball team knocked off Gordon, 86-60, in Wednesday evening's Conference of New England (CNE) showdown from the Bennett Center.

Matt Boen (Mansfield, Mass.) led the Gulls with his game-high 17 points (6-12 FG, 5-9 3PT), while Elijah Kinney (Nashville, Tenn.) posted 12 points (4-7 FG, 4-4 FT), six rebounds, two blocks, an assist and a steal in his 16 minutes of action.

In a low-scoring night for Marcus Montagnino (Gloucester, Mass.), the reigning CNE Player of the Year still logged four points (2-4 FG), 13 rebounds, and nine assists.

Jeff Hill (Lynn, Mass.) also scored 14 points (6-13 FG), snagged four boards, and dished out an assist in the win.

After a 10-8 start in Endicott's favor, the visitors rode a 10-0 run to grab an 18-8 advantage. A Kinney dunk and triples from Forte and Boen highlighted the spurt.

The Fighting Scots answered with a 12-0 run of their own to even the score at 18 (11:02 remaining, H1). Jason Romans (Peabody, Mass.) snapped the hosts' run with a nice drive to the rim out of a timeout.

With Endicott leading 23-21 after a long sequence of defensive stops, Lynn connected on a corner triple to put the Gulls back up five (26-21), and on the next trip down, Romans ripped the cords from the opposite corner (28-21 Endicott).

A few minutes later, Endicott headed into the halftime break on a 15-3 run (38-24) after Boen knocked down a catch and shoot three at the buzzer. 

Kinney led the Gulls with eight points (2-5 FG, 4-4 FT), five rebounds, and two blocks after the first 20 minutes. Boen also logged eight points in the half via 3-7 shooting (2-4 3PT).

The Gulls emerged from halftime just as hot as they went in. They leapt out to a 26-8 run right out of the break (opening 6:08 of play), blowing it wide open and making it a 64-32 ballgame. 

At the 17:27 mark, Hill found Kinney from half court for a highlight alley-oop slam to define the dominant surge.

The rest of the way Endicott's bench unit led by Romans, Cam Keliher (South Hampton, N.H.), Forte, Andrew Mitchell (Roxbury, Mass.), Liam Dunfee (Nahant, Mass.), and Max Grenert (Beverly, Mass.) closed out the blowout win, 86-60.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls lead the all-time series, 35-23.
• Endicott has won 9 of the last 10 meetings in the matchup dating back to 4/1/21.
• Between the 7:56 mark of the first half and the 13:52 mark of the second (14:04 of play), Endicott outscored Gordon 41-11.
• Season high 14 points for Hill. 
• Back-to-back games of 17+ points for Boen.

WHAT'S NEXT

No. 21 Endicott (14-1, 6-0 CNE) welcomes CNE rival Suffolk to MacDonald Gymnasium on Saturday for a 3 PM tipoff. Gordon (4-11, 3-3 CNE) hosts Curry on Saturday in another 3 PM CNE bout. 

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(Photo Credit - Bradley Griffin '28)