With the score tied at 63-63 with 3.3 seconds remaining in the contest, junior guard Jeremy Shannon (Lowell, MA/Canterbury School) netted the game winning three-pointer with time expiring for visiting Emerson College men's basketball to give the Lions the 66-63 victory over Mount Ida College in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action this Saturday afternoon. The Mustangs drop their first loss of the season (3-1) and their first GNAC (0-1) loss while the Lions improve to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
The game opened with the visitors scoring the first six points of the contest off two consecutive shots from downtown by sophomore Tom Messinger (Florence, MA/Deerfield Academy) and junior Bryan Rouse (East Greenwich, RI/Toll Gate) up 6-0 in the first three minutes.
The entire first half was sloppy for everyone with both teams shooting under 35 percent. The Lions led early on by as many as nine capped off by a Shannon jumper ahead 18-9 with 9:14 to go before the break. The Mustangs would turn up the offense and pull within four points of the lead off a Johrone Bunch (Meriden, CT/F.T. Maloney) three pointer trailing 18-14 at the seven minute mark.
The teams would exchange baskets for the next six minutes until Mount Ida knotted the score at 25-25 on two good free throws by junior Darren Martinez (Mattapan, MA/Brookline). Neither squad converted in the final minute of the first half heading into the break deadlocked at 25-25. The Lions were in serious foul trouble going into the second set with three starters at three fouls a piece.
The second half opened with a barrage of three's in the first five and a half minutes all drained by Messinger giving Emerson the immediate six point advantage. The Mustangs answered on a couple of Matt Bennett (Rochester, NH/Spaulding) jumpers keeping the lead close, not giving the visitors a chance to blow the game open only trailing 39-33.
The Lions pulled ahead by eight points with 13 minutes to go in the contest on a couple of Shannon free throws up 43-35. But Mount Ida would not be denied answering with two huge shots from behind the arc by Bennett and junior Bruce Cary (Standish, ME/Bonny Eagle) erasing the lead and going up by one, 46-45, at the ten minute mark.
The Mustangs started to control the advantage and led by as many as six on a Travis Hillery (Tyngsboro, MA/Central Catholic) lay-up leading 53-47 with the crowd going wild. The visitors were in severe foul trouble at this point and ended up losing Messinger and freshman Nathan Firn (Wadesboro, NC/Joseph A. Foran) within 30 second span at the four minute mark. Mount Ida was ahead 61-56 on a Bennett lay-up with 3:54 remaining in the game immediately after two Lions had fouled out.
Shannon took over the game with 3:34 to go scoring seven out of the last nine points for his team including the buzzer beater. He would cut the hosts lead to three off (58-61) a jumper in the paint. Immediately following a Bennett lay-up to pull away again by five (58-63), Shannon drained another from downtown to pull within two at 63-61 with less than three minutes to go. A Hillery foul gave Lions center Rouse two free throws that he ended up making to lock up the game at 63-63 with under a minute remaining.
Emerson had two chances to win the contest. Their first was off a Mustang turnover at the top of the key by Martinez giving them the ball and 30 seconds for a last shot for the victory. They ended up missing the first off a runner in the lane by Shannon that was deflected out of bounds with 3.3 seconds on the clock. They inbounded the ball from underneath the basket to Shannon and with two Mustangs in his face. He threw up a turn around prayer than was knocked down with the buzzer sounding. The Lions, who were outplayed for most of the game, snuck away with the 66-63 victory, their first conference win of the year.
The Mustangs saw a couple of outstanding individual performances, especially by Bennett, who netted a game high 24 points with 11 caroms good for his first double-double of the season. Bunch was perfect from the charity stripe going 8-8 with 13 points and one rebound. Thompson and Cary scored six points a piece and combined for 12 boards.
Emerson saw three great performances statistically from Messinger who dropped in 15 points all coming off the three-pointer. Rouse netted a team high 22 points with five boards going 7-8 from the line. Shannon was the difference for his squad though scoring 19 points, 15 coming in the second half, nine caroms, and three assists for the game.
Mount Ida men's basketball has a short break through Thanksgiving and will start the action back up on December 2 at the Mount Ida athletic center against non-conference Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts starting at 6:00 p.m.