NEWTON, Mass. –Mount Ida College men's basketball made history on Tuesday night by beating Saint Joseph's Maine 91-83 at Mount Ida Athletic Center for their first ever Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) playoff win, ending a sixteen year drought without a postseason victory.
Behind 18 points from captain Kevin Conner (Mansfield, Mass.), the fourth seeded Mustangs (17-9) advance to Thursday evening's GNAC semifinals, while #5 Saint Joseph's ends their season at 13-13 overall.
Conner led five players in double-figures for Mount Ida, who are now just one win away from tying the all-time program wins record, set in 2000-01. That was also the last Mount Ida team to secure a playoff victory, and winners of the only North Atlantic Conference (NAC) championship in program history.
The Monks did their best to prove the adage that it is difficult to beat a team three times in a year. They stormed back from a seven-point first half deficit and held a three point lead late in the period before back to back buckets by John Oliver (N. Babylon, N.Y.) put the Mustangs up 38-36 at the break.
A layup by Aaron Hall (Haverhill, Mass.), who led all players with 20 points and ten rebounds, gave the Monks a 49-46 lead, which Mount Ida reclaimed and extended to six on three-pointers by Ethan Dujon (Warwick, R.I.) and Joey DeFillippi (Bristol, Conn.).
That Mustang tandem scored 13 points apiece, while Jayson Clark (Austin, Texas) had 12 points and game-highs of seven assists and four steals.
Connor and Clark took over the scoring in the second half, and then Dujon made three straight layups to put the Mount Ida lead at a game-high of eight points, 74-66 with 5:55 to play, as he dueled with John Crawley (Fitchburg, Mass.) on several consecutive possesions.
Crawley matched Dujon with seven straight points to keep the Monks within shouting distance and ended the night with 16 points.
A turnaround jumper at the edge of the paint from Clark with under a minute to play kept Mount Ida up by six and put an exclamation point on the win.
Sophomore Dennis Ross (Portland, Maine) scored ten points and had a block and two assists in a starting role for the Mustangs, while Oliver and Errald Jordine (Stamford, Conn.) added seven points apiece.
The Monks saw Ian Mileikis (Auburn, Maine) score 14 points as they shot 70.8% from the field in the second half and 22-24 (91.7%) from the foul line for the game. Mario Nery (Bronx, N.Y.) added eight points and dished out five assists.
Up next on the bracket will be a date with top-seeded Albertus Magnus on Thursday night in New Haven, Connecticut. Game time is still to be determined, so stay with mountidamustangs.com for more information as the Mustangs continue their postseason run.
