Junior guard Dave Santos (Mattapan, MA/Ben Franklin Institute) led the Mount Ida College men's basketball to their second consecutive Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) victory with 27 points over hosting Rivier College, 80-71, last Saturday afternoon in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Mustangs improve to 9-8 overall and 3-7 in the GNAC while the Raiders drop to 9-8, 6-6 in conference play.
Mount Ida led from the opening tip to the final horn starting with a 7-0 run after a three pointer by junior Bruce Cary (Standish, ME/Bonny Eagle) in the first three minutes of the half. The Mustangs held a small advantage over the Raiders for the next four minutes leading 14-10 at the 12:14 mark.
The visitors opened up the offense full throttle jumping ahead by 16 points after another jumper by Cary up 33-17 with six minutes to go. After a short comeback by the hosts to cut the lead to seven, the Mustangs dropped in another basket by Cary to pull ahead by nine up 39-30 heading into the locker room. Cary scored 11 of his 18 points in the first half to boost the Mount Ida offensive attack.
The Raiders netted the first basket of the second stanza on a D.J. Poitras lay-in to pull within seven points down 39-32 with 18:47 to go. Mount Ida poured on a 9-0 run immediately following the lay-up on two consecutive trifecta's from Cary and Santos and a Matt Bennett (Rochester, NH/Spaulding) lay-in to lead 47-32 at 17:42.
It got ugly for the Raiders while the Mustangs commanded the game going ahead by a game high 24 points after two successful free throws by Santos leading 69-45 with 9:22 on the clock. The visitors began to chip away at the large deficit and eventually cut the Mustang advantage to nine points at the two minute mark.
The comeback was short lived while Mount Ida sunk their free throws going 5-6 from the charity stripe down the stretch to seal the victory. The Mustangs rode home with the 80-71 win, good for their third conference victory of the season taking over eighth place in the GNAC standings.
Along with Santos, Mount Ida saw a couple of outstanding individual performances throughout the game. Cary, who was injured for over a month, has come back and boosted the Mustangs since returning netting 18 points and six boards in the contest. Bennett continues to prove his worth netting 13 points with nine caroms and two steals. Freshman Johrone Bunch (Meriden, CT/F.T. Maloney) tallied 13 points and five boards.
The Mustangs will host Emmanuel College this coming Thursday night starting at 6:00 p.m.