New Haven, Conn. – The Albertus Magnus College men's basketball advanced to Thursday's Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Tournament Semifinals with a 109-87 thumping of visiting Mount Ida on Tuesday evening. The third-seeded Falcons will travel to face No. 2 seed Lasell with a berth in the conference championship on the line. The winner of the GNAC Tournament will determine the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.
Albertus Magnus enters the contest with a 19-5 record and is in the midst of a five-game winning streak. The Falcons are making their 16th overall appearance in the GNAC Tournament, owning a 24-9 overall record in the event. The team has captured four straight conference titles and won 13 GNAC Tournament games in a row. AMC is 2-0 versus the Lasers all-time in GNAC Tournament action.
Lasell earned the No. 2 seed in the league tournament by finishing the year with a 14-4 mark in GNAC tilts. The Lasers owned the tiebreaker over Albertus Magnus after sweeping the season series. The team improved to 18-8 on the year with a GNAC Quarterfinal win against Suffolk on Tuesday. Lasell enters the contest on Thursday having dropped three of its last five games.
Albertus Magnus ranks second in the GNAC in scoring (87.4 points per game), field goal percentage (47.8 %) and rebounding (41.8 boards per contest), while leading the league in blocks (3.8 per tilt). The team has surpassed the 90-point plateau 11 times this winter, highlighted by a season-high 109-point effort last time out against the Mustangs.
Lasell is tops in the conference in three-point shooting, hitting over 38 percent of its shots from beyond the arc, while also leading the GNAC in rebounding with 42 rebounds per game. The squad is second in the league in free-throw shooting (73.3) and third in field goal percentage (46.1 %).
The Falcons lost both contests with Lasell this season. Early in the season at home, the Falcons fell, 94-81. Over the final 1:14 of that game, Lasell outscored Albertus, 11-0, beginning with a trey from sophomore guard Scott Arsenault and finishing with a pair of free throws from senior forward Pat Marchand to escape with the victoy. Following Arsenault's shot from the beyond the arc, the Falcons missed their final four shots of the contest, three of which were from three-point range. In early February in Massachusetts, Lasell netted a 98-83 triumph. The two key factors in the contest proved to be three-point shooting and free-throw percentage with Lasell holding the edge in both. The hosts knocked down 12-of-24 shots from beyond the arc compared to the visitors hitting just 3-of-11 attempts from deep. At the charity stripe, the Lasers converted on an impressive 36-of-42 attempts (85 percent), while the Falcons hit just 16-of-27 (59 percent).
The Falcons see four players average in double figures led by freshman forward Shontaey Lovell (Brooklyn, N.Y.) with over 17 points and 11 rebounds per game. Sophomore forward Jaqhawn Walters (Hartford, Conn.) is also averaging a double-double this winter, scoring over 15 per tilt and pulling down 10 boards a contest. Senior wing Marc Wilson (Jersey City, N.J.) has emerged as a scoring threat later in the year, scoring 20 or more points in two of his last three games.
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