FINAL SCORE: Albertus Magnus 87 | Johnson & Wales 63
TEAM RECORDS: Albertus Magnus (15-4, 11-2) | Johnson & Wales (9-9, 9-3)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Led by two 20-point performances from senior Grant Ellis (Newark, N.J.) and junior Jaqhawn Walters (Hartford, Conn.), the Albertus Magnus College men's basketball team shut down GNAC rival Johnson & Wales, 87-63, on Wednesday evening at "The Nest".

HOW IT HAPPENED

Johnson & Wales opened the game with the early 9-5 lead before a 7-0 run put the Falcons up by three, 12-9, following a three from Ellis. With the score in favor of Albertus, 16-11, Johnson & Wales rallied off five straight points to tie the game at 16-16 with 11:31 remaining.

However, a jumper from Ellis sparked a 11-0 run to put the Falcons up 27-16 before pushing their lead to 36-18 with 5:06 left in the first. Johnson & Wales continued to chip away at the Falcons' lead, but would trail 42-27 at the half.

Albertus continued to do its job both offensively and defensively in the second half and managed to extend its lead to 21, 68-47, after a layup from Erik Langston (Stratford, Conn.). Johnson and Wales slowly saw the Falcons' lead grow as the hosts took their largest lead of the game with 29, 87-58, with 1:25 left to play. The Wildcats were only able to score five points before the final buzzard.

FIRST HALF STATS

• Ellis led the team in the first with 16 points while Walters chipped in with 10.
• As a team, the Falcons were shooting 46.2 percent (18-of-39) from the floor compared to the Wildcats who shot only 30.3 percent (10-of-33).
• The first half saw two ties and two lead changes.
• Albertus held a 20-12 edge over Johnson and Wales in points in the paint as well as led the visitors 10-2 in chance points.
• Liam Pittman (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) played solid defense collecting two of the Falcons' three blocks in the first as well as tallied five defensive rebounds.

SECOND HALF STATS

• Devin Coleman (Bridgeport, Conn.) registered 12 of his 14 points in the second half.
• The Wildcats forced eight Falcons' turnovers compared to their three.
• Albertus out-shot the visitors in the final 20 minutes of play 45-36 as well as shot 53.8 percent from the field.
• Walters added two blocks to his final stat line.
• Coleman and Ellis both went 4-for-4 at the charity stripe.

FINAL STATS

• Walters recorded yet another double-double as the forward finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds, an assists, two blocks and a steal.
• Ellis netted 22 points while Coleman and Ryan Pittman rounded out the double-digit scorers with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
• Albertus finished the game shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor while the Wildcats shot only 32.8 percent.
• Four out of six players shot 100 percent from the free throw line.
• Three Wildcats scored in double-figures including a team-high 19 points from Edson Dascy.

UP NEXT

The Falcons return to action on Saturday, January 28 at Lasell. Game time is set for 3 p.m.