PROVIDENCE, RI. – Mount Ida College will return to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball postseason tournament as the #6 seed after finishing their regular season with an 89-69 defeat to #17 Johnson & Wales on Saturday afternoon at the Wildcat Center. 

The Mustangs finish their regular season 11-14 and 7-11 in the conference, and will travel to #3 seeded Albertus Magnus on Tuesday, February 23^rd at 7:00 pm, while the Wildcats wrapped up their first regular season conference title since 2004 and will host #8 Saint Joseph's Maine at 7:30 pm the same night. 

Freshman Dennis Ross (Portland, Maine) turned in his first double-digit scoring performance with 11 points off the Mount Ida bench, and Ethan Dujon (Warwick, R.I.) led the Mustangs with 15 points. 

The Wildcats were paced by Quarry Greenaway (Westchester, Mass.), with 30 points and 17 rebounds, and Tom Garrick (Seekonk, Mass.), who rounded out his stat line with 29 points, five rebounds and four blocks.

A pair of Jayson Clark (Austin, Texas) free throws narrowed the JWU margin to 22-19 at the 11:07 mark of the first half, but from there the Wildcats went on an 8-0 to push the margin to 30-19. Early in the second half, the Mustangs got the Wildcat lead to 10 but gradually Johnson & Wales increased the margin to 21, 72-51, on a Garrick layup at the 10:30 mark. The lead grew to as many as 25, 76-51, on a Greenaway tip in, as the senior recorded his 11^th double-double of the year.

The Wildcats forced the Mustangs into 24 turnovers, including 16 steals, which they converted to 26 points. Junior Anthony Jernigan (East Hartford, Conn.) came off the bench to score 16 points while grabbing six steals. 

Mount Ida got 12 points and three assists from sophomore Joey DeFillippi (Bristol, Conn.), and 11 points from Errald Jordine (Stamford, Conn.), who, along with Brendan Cunningham (Quincy, Mass.) led the team with six rebounds.

Johnson & Wales was strong inside, outrebounding Mount Ida, 46-to-33, and also held a 54-to-26 margin for points in the paint. 

The Mustangs and the Falcons will meet for the third time this season in New Haven on Tuesday, with Albertus Magnus squeaking by 96-91 just five days ago in Newton.