NEWTON, Mass – Mount Ida College scored the first seven points and never trailed on Saturday afternoon as they defeated Norwich University 70-63 for their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) win of the 2014-15 men's basketball season.
The win snapped Mount Ida's nine-game skid and improves their record to 2-10 on the year (1-5 GNAC), while the loss drops Norwich to 4-7 overall and 1-4 in the GNAC.
John Oliver (North Babylon, N.Y.) led the Mustangs with 16 points, while freshman guard Jayson Clark (Austin, Texas) added 12 points and a game-high eight assists in the victory. Senior Treace Macklin (Brockton, Mass.) and sophomore Ethan Dujon (Warwick, R.I.) scored 11 points each, while Kevin Conner (Mansfield, Mass.) contributed 10 points, as five Mustangs were in double-digits.
Four players scored in double digits for the Cadets as sophomore forward Kevin Ross (Ontario, Calif.) and freshman center Mike Hogervorst (Leiden, Netherlands) scored 15 points each. Senior forward Evan Tullar (Chelsea, Vt.) contributed 11 points and came up with a pair of steals, while Gary Gladden (Boyton Beach, Fla.) netted 10 points on the day.
Mount Ida jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first four minutes of the game thanks to back to back three-pointers by Oliver, who was 4-7 from downtown in the game. The Mustangs' lead ballooned to 14 points at the midway point of the half with a triple by Joey DeFillippi (Bristol, Conn.), who had nine points, four assists and five rebounds in the win.
The Cadets battled back from an 11 point deficit on a 7-0 run before a layup from Tullar cut the margin down to six with 6:12 to play in the frame. The Mustangs quickly stopped the bleeding as another 6-0 run ensued before Norwich managed to cut the margin to nine to trail 36-27 at the break.
The Cadets looked to rebound from a slow start as Gladden opened the second half with a three-pointer, followed by a layup from Hogervorst, which shrunk the margin to five in the first two minutes of the opening frame. The Mustangs managed to find life on back-to-back threes from Oliver and Macklin to extend the lead back to ten points at the 12:33 mark.
The game was not in hand yet, however, as Norwich cut the lead to just four points at the 5:19 mark, but Mount Ida rattled off of a 9-2 run in the final minutes and held on for the 70-63 win, thanks in part to shooting 13-15 (86.7%) from the free throw line in the second half.
Norwich shot 41.8 percent from the floor and 73.3 percent from the free throw line, while Mount Ida shot 48.1 percent from the field and nailed 82.4 percent of its shots from the charity stripe for the game and out-rebounded the Cadets 35-27, led by six caroms from Clark.
Mount Ida will hit the road again on Wednesday evening when they travel to Anna Maria for a 6:00 pm conference match-up.
Norwich will stay in conference play next Wednesday evening with a 7:00 pm road game against Johnson & Wales (R.I.).