NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida College dropped an 85-62 decision to visiting Johnson & Wales University on Saturday afternoon at Mount Ida Athletic Center in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball game filled with foul shots, some of them of the historic variety.
Mount Ida freshman Jayson Clark (Austin, Texas) scored 16 points, all of them from the free-throw line, where he shot (94.1%). Clark missed just one of his 17 shots from the charity stripe, setting new Mount Ida records for free throws made and free throws attempted in a game.
The teams combined to shoot 72 free throws, and the Mustangs shot 82.4% (28-34) as a team from the stripe. That was good enough to tie for the second most made free-throws in a game, and was among the top ten in team free-throw percentage.
Clark bettered the mark of Dave Santos, who made 12 free-throws in a 2008 game against Fisher College. He also set a new record for free-throw attempts, which had previously been 15 by Thomas Belton from January of 2008 when the Mustangs faced Wheelock.
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, it did not help to parry the efforts of Quarry Greenaway (Westchester, N.Y.). The junior guard for the Wildcats scored a game-high 30 points, shooting 9-18 from the field and 12-16 from the line himself.
Greenaway, who, with 12 rebounds was one of two players to register a double-double for JWU, had 17 points in the first half, helping the visitors build a double-digit advantage early in the game.
It didn't take long into the second half for Mount Ida to cut a 16-point halftime deficit to just ten points, using a three-pointer by John Oliver (North Babylon, N.Y.) and an old-fashioned three-point play by senior Treace Macklin (Brockton, Mass.), who had ten points, the only other Mustang in double figures. Oliver added eight points and eight rebounds in the loss.
Ten points was as close as the Mustangs would come however, as six quick points by Greenaway and a three-point play by Tom Garrick (Seekonk, Mass.), who added 11 points and five assists in the win, returned the lead to 17 points.
Clark hit all three free-throws after he was hit taking a three, which made it a 62-47 game at the 11:30 mark, but Garrick continued to pound the Mustangs on the inside, and then Jarell Lawson (Providence, R.I.) knocked down a three-pointer to up the lead to twenty points. Lawson was the other Wildcat with a double-double, as he poured in 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, along with three assists.
The visitors held a 50-28 edge on the glass, as Michael Kiser (Pike Road, Ala.) also contributed eight caroms to go with his ten points. Garrick and Clayton Roker (Bronx, N.Y.) combined for ten boards and eight assists while contributing 11 points apiece.
The largest lead of the first half was 21 points, on three occasions, the last of which came via a jumper by Rudy Brito (Providence, R.I.) and made it 36-51 with 6:13 left to play.
Clark dished out four assists in the loss for Mount Ida, while Patrick McKearney (Avon, Conn.) added eight points and six rebounds, along with a pair of steals, off the bench.
The Mustangs are back on the court in Mount Ida Athletic Center on Monday afternoon with a 3:00 pm GNAC game against Saint Joe's Maine, part of a Martin Luther King Day doubleheader between the two schools.
The Wildcats are home for the holiday with a 5:00 pm contest against Emmanuel College.