BRISTOL, R.I. – The Endicott men's basketball team ran their season-high win streak to six games, including their fourth straight CCC contest, following a 91-76 victory over Roger Williams on Thursday evening. The Gulls benefited from a double-double effort from freshman forward Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) and a team-high 16 points from junior guard John Henault (Lunenburg, Mass.).
Endicott (10-2, 4-1 CCC) improved to 21-6 all-time versus Roger Williams and 7-3 all-time on the Hawks' home court. The Blue and Green look to continue their winning ways on Saturday, January 11th at 3:00 pm with a road match up with the defending CCC champions, Curry. The Colonels are 2-8 (1-4 CCC) and suffered a four-point loss to Gordon in their most recent game.
Roger Williams (2-10, 1-4 CCC) has lost six of their last seven games, but saw a quality performance from freshman forward Chris Bardwell (North Andover, Mass.) who dropped a game-high 22 points thanks in part to a perfect 10-for-10 at the free throw line to go along with six rebounds and two assists.
Sampson stuffed the stat sheet in this game by scoring 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting, 6-of-6 at the free throw line, 11 rebounds, three assists, a block, and a steal. Tonight's output was his second double-double of the season after putting of 10 points and 15 boards against Eastern Nazarene back on December 7th.
Henault continued to shine in conference games with 16 points against the Hawks. Henault, who averages 18.4 points per game against the CCC, added five rebounds, an assist, and a steal as he and Sampson were two of four Endicott players in double figures. Graduate student guard Lachlan Magee (Melbourne, Australia) and junior forward Tell White (New Castle, N.H.) chipped in with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Freshman guard Max Motroni (West Warwick, R.I.) totaled nine points, including two three-pointers midway through the second half to help stretch the Endicott lead to double-digits.
Shortly after Motroni's second three-pointer at the 9:51 mark to make it 68-58, the Hawks quickly cut the lead back down to just six points after free throws by Bardwell and a fast break jumper by senior forward Will Gerencer (Bowdoin, Maine). Motroni looked to hit another three, but the rebound fell in the hands of Gulls sophomore forward Deven Richardson (Newark, N.J.) who finished with a put back. The Hawks gave it away on the next possession and White turned the Roger Williams miscue into offense as his layup, and free throw on the foul, pushed the lead back up to 11.
With under three minutes to go in the second half, Endicott put the game away with an 8-0 run that included an Andre Makris (Southbury, Conn.) dunk and an offensive board and layup for Sampson that capped off the scoring for the Gulls.
Roger Williams had three starters in double figures with Bardwell leading with 22 and Ryan Palumbo (Warwick, R.I.) and Joseph Henry (Medway, Mass.) adding 18 and 10 points, respectively.
The Gulls held a slim 38-35 rebounding advantage with 13 offensive boards contributing to 14 second chance points. Endicott shot 50.0% from the field and 40.0% (4-of-10) from three-point range. The Gulls connected on 17-of-20 free throw attempts (85.0%) as they improved their season average to 72.5% efficiency. Endicott's bench dominated, outscoring Roger Williams 39-19, as did shooters in the paint by a margin of 50-26.