Springfield, MA: The Western New England University men's basketball team held off a second half comeback by the Roadrunners to earn a 63-58 win at the Hampton Inn Holiday Classic. The Golden Bears move to 4-2 overall while Ramapo College now stands at 3-1 overall.
WNE, who held the Roadrunners to just 16 points in the first half, brought a 30-16 lead into the second half. It was the second day in a row however that Ramapo opened the second half on a run to close the gap. The Roadrunners opened the half on a 6-0 run before WNE went on an 11-2 run to stretch their lead back to 17 with under 14 minutes to go in the game. An 11-0 run by the Roadrunners capped off with a pair of free throws from Tim Linton cut the Golden Bears lead to six with under 10 to play. Following a pair of free throws by WNE, Ramapo's Anthony Corbo started a run with a pair of free throws to start a 9-2 run which shrunk the WNE lead to just one with 6:39 on the clock, 44-45. A big three-pointer from Brian Geitner swung the lead back to WNE, 48-44. Ramapo would cut the lead to one once again with 4:36 on the clock on an and-one play from Corbo as the Golden Bears continued to hold off the Roadrunners and stretched the lead to seven four times in the final three minutes of action. The final time coming with 18 ticks remaining on the clock before Corbo sank a big three-pointer for the Roadrunners to cut the lead to four with six seconds on the clock.
Four Roadrunners scored in double figures today including Corbo with 17 points and four rebounds. Jordan Myers added 15 points and five rebounds while Peter Gorman and Linton each contributed with ten points. Shane Rooney posted seven rebounds to lead the team. Ramapo shot 42% (21-50) from the field in the game, 23% (3-13) from the three-point line and 61% (13-21) from the free throw line. For their efforts during the tournament both Jordan Myers and Peter Gorman were named to the All-Tournament Team.
The Roadrunners return to action on Tuesday, November 26th when they travel to New Jersey City University for the first NJAC game of the season at 7:30 PM.