Mustangs Honor Seniors before Finale against Wildcats

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NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida honored five senior members of their men's basketball team on Saturday afternoon at Mount Ida Athletic Center before their final clash of the year, one with Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) foe Johnson & Wales, who spoiled the ceremony by erupting for a 93-51 victory.

Kenny Jean (Dorchester, Mass.), Kairi Alston (Highland, N.Y.), Anre Dowell (Plymouth, Mass.), Patrick Wenz (Long Island, N.Y.) and Calvin Claiborne (Dorchester, Mass.) were honored in a pre-game ceremony as they played their final game with the Green and White.

In his final game, Jean dished out a career-high six assists to lead all players, while also scoring seven points and grabbing six rebounds.

Wildcats sophomore Robert Lewis (Providence, R.I.) scored a game-high 21 points, including going 4-for-4 from three-point land. He stuffed the stat sheet with three assists, seven rebounds and six steals. His classmate Quarry Greenaway (Westchester, N.Y.) added 20 points in the victory and, with 11 rebounds, registered the only double-double of the night.

It was a pair of freshmen, Ethan Dujon (Warwick, R.I.) and Nathan Bueno (Methuen, Mass.) that scored in double-figures for the Mustangs. Bueno scored 11 points and handed out five assists to go with two steals, while Dujon scored ten points for the home team.

The visitors opened up a 59-26 lead by halftime after shooting 63.6% from the field in the first half and hitting 9-13 of their three-point attempts. For the second time in as many games, an opponent shot over 50% from behind the three-point line against Mount Ida, as the Wildcats would go on to hit 11 of their 18 attempts from long distance (61.1%) in the game.

Dowell made a jumper with 17:39 left in the first half to put Mount Ida up 6-5, but Matt Barboza (Riverside, R.I.) and Tom Garrick (Seekonk, Mass.) made back to back triples to answer for the visitors. Sophomore Michael Joseph (Windsor, Conn.) responded with two three-pointers of his own in the next minute to pull the Mustangs within four points before a 41-10 Johnson & Wales run over the next ten minutes put the game out of hand.

Johnson & Wales, who forced 26 turnovers that turned into 33 points, grabbed their largest lead of the night with 9:00 left in the second half, when they held a 49 point advantage, 84-35.

Joseph had seven points in the loss for Mount Ida, while Dowell added six points in his final game.

The Wildcats held a 45-25 edge in rebounding, helped by ten boards from senior Esaie Touze (Providence, R.I.), who added nine points and had two blocks and two steals. Barboza also had two rejections to go with 15 points, while Curtis Lucas was perfect on three attempts from downtown in adding 15 points himself, to go with three assists and two steals.

Garrick had five assists himself, coupled with seven points, while freshman Rameek Boyd (New Rochelle, N.Y.) handed out four dimes in the win.

The Mustangs season comes to a close with a 5-20 record, and a mark of 3-15 in conference play.

Johnson and Wales finishes their regular season with a mark of 19-6 (15-3 GNAC) and will host a quarterfinal game in the GNAC tournament next week.