San Juan, Puerto Rico – Sophomore guard Daniel Ramis came off the bench and drained five three pointers finishing with 15 points as Montclair State knocked off Illinois College, 74-70 at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente on Tuesday afternoon.
Rahsaan Johnson and Jovanni Chatham each had 11 points for the Red Hawks, who evened their record at 5-5 on the season. Montclair State is next in action on Friday, December 30 taking on Cabrini College in the Greyhound Classic at Moravian College.
After falling behind 8-4 early in the game, MSU used an 11-0 run to take the lead. Jarrett Bogus hit a three to start the run and a Chatham jumper made the score 9-8. Brandon Channer added a three-pointer before Bogus capped the spurt with another three for a 15-7 advantage with 15:57 left.
Illinois College trimmed back the lead to four points near the midpoint of the opening half but three consecutive three-pointers from Ramis boosted Montclair State's lead back to 28-17. A Justin Porter jumper with 7:24 left gave MSU its largest lead at 35-19 however that was whittled back to 35-30 over the next three minutes.
Chatham converted a three-point play and four straight points by Eddie Emedoh closed out the half as Montclair led 44-36 at the break.
In the second half, an eight-point spurt widened the Red Hawk lead to 59-47 with 12:33 left. Illinois College still hung around and got within 63-62 with 5:26 to play. Johnson countered with a three-pointer and Chatham followed with a jumper pushing the lead back to 68-63.
Payton Dugan connected on a jumper for IC with 1:25 making the score 72-70. Illinois College then had a chance to take the lead with 40 seconds left however Tim Parks' three missed. Bogus grabbed the rebound. Channer was fouled with 32 ticks and made both attempts for a 74-70 lead.
Porter all but sealed the game with a rebound off a three-point miss with 10 seconds to go.
Bogus finished with nine points as did Emedoh. Porter had six points and four rebounds with Jordan Roberson grabbed six boards.