MEN'S BASKETBALL DROPS THIRD GNAC LOSS TO JOHNSON & WALES, Junior Otis Thompson Nets 14

The Mount Ida College Men’s Basketball team dropped a 79-57 loss to Johnson & Wales University this past Tuesday at Mt. Ida Athletic Center. The Mustangs record would fall to 5-7 overall and 2-3 in the conference while the Wildcats move to 7-4 going 4-1 in the GNAC.

The entire first half would be a back and forth battle with Mount Ida leading through the first seven minutes after they finished up a 10-0 run at the 13:30 mark. JWU would come back and take the advantage at 9:59 on a four point play by Wildcat sophomore guard Darren Faust (Queens, NY/Long Island Lutheran). Faust would drain the three and collect the foul giving his team the lead which they would maintain until the break. JWU would start to pull away before the split and go into the locker room up 10 points at 39-29.

It would be all about the Wildcats in the second half as they stretched their advantage by as many as 27 with 10:34remaining. Mount Ida had a tough time finding the outside shot through the zone of JWU and was unable to convert making it hard for a late comeback. The Wildcats would shoot a solid 54 percent from the floor while the Mustangs ended at 35 percent and fewer than 10 % from three point land.

Mount Ida was lead by Junior’s Otis Thompson (Gardner, MA/Gardner) and newcomer Matt Bennett (Rochester, NH/St. Lawrence University) would combine for 27 points and 10 boards. Sophomore Darren Martinez (Mattapan, MA/Brookline) netted eight points whileBruce Cary(Standish, ME/Bonny Eagle) would chip in nine.

The Wildcats were led by three players in double figures, Tirone McCray (Brockton, MA/Cardinal Spellman) who would net a game high 24 points with 10 rebounds going 10-13 from the charity stripe and tallying a double-double. Senior Greg Samuels (Philadelphia, PA/West Philadelphia) would light a fire in the second half going 4-6 from downtown and total 19 points, Faust would net a quiet 17.

The Mustangs will host Suffolk University this Thursday in their fifth GNAC match-up with tip-off starting at 6:00 p.m.