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Season in Review: 2019-20 Albertus Magnus Men's Basketball

Season in Review: 2019-20 Albertus Magnus Men's Basketball
Posted: May 14, 2020

2019-20 Schedule and Results | 2019-20 Roster | 2019-20 Stats | Record Book

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – For the ninth consecutive season, the Albertus Magnus College men's basketball team tallied 20-plus wins and made an appearance in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship Game. The Falcons, who were a staple in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll all season, finished 2019-20 with a 22-5 overall record with a 9-2 mark in conference.

Albertus bounced back from a season-opening loss to the University of Lynchburg (87-78) at the MMI Tip-off Tournament, hosted by Hood College, with a dominating 112-62 defeat of Southern Virginia University on day two of the event on November 9. The Falcons' 112-point showing was the first of seven triple-digit scoring games for the team throughout the year. The win over Knights started an outstanding 11-game win streak for Albertus, one that stretched into mid-January.

The Falcons followed up their triumph over SVU with a 125-71 win over Lesley University in its home opener on November 12. Inside "The Nest" at the Cosgrove Marcus Messer Athletic Center, Albertus set a new program record for scoring, just edging its 120-point game against the College of Mount Saint Vincent in December of 2008. This win also marked the first time in program history that the Falcons posted back-to-back 100-point outings.

Albertus then defeated both Anna Maria College and Keene State to close out the month of November. The Falcons first handed GNAC foe, Anna Maria, a 22-point setback, 91-69, in home nonconference play, before gutting out a two-point triumph, 83-81, over the Owls on the road. Behind one of his many outstanding performances on the season, senior guard Jahmerikah Green-Younger (Norwalk, Conn.) guided the Falcons to victory over their aerial opponents by scoring a game-high 25 points and sinking the game-winning layup with just a second left on the clock.

The month of December brought another tough stretch of nonconference games for Albertus. The stretch began with a home 76-63 victory over NESCAC power Williams College, who appeared in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals the year prior. The Falcons then hung 112 points on Mitchell College in a 112-99 road win. Albertus continued its win streak with a 97-82 victory over George Fox University at The Nest in the two teams' first-ever meeting.

Riding a seven-game win streak that featured one victory by less than 13 points, the Falcons entered the toughest stretch of their schedule, as four of their next five opponents made an appearance in the 2020 NCAA Division III Tournament. This gauntlet of games began with a 71-60 Albertus win over then-No. 22 WPI, who received an at-large bid into the big dance, at home on December 7. The Falcons concluded 2019 with a 25-point triumph over St. Lawrence University at home on December 14.

Albertus kicked off the new year with a 2-0 showing at the challenging York (Pa.) College Spartan Classic. The Falcons began the event with a gutsy 76-73 win over the host Spartans of York (Pa.), erasing a four-point deficit, 72-68, in the final three minutes to earn the victory in enemy territory. The Falcons then ground out a 103-95 win over the Coast Guard Academy on day two. Both York and Coast Guard appeared in the NCAA Tourney as automatic qualifiers, with the former winning the Capital Athletic Conference crown and the latter taking the NEWMAC.

The challenges continued to find Albertus, as it next met then-No. 5 Middlebury College on the road. The Falcons, who were ranked No. 18 in the latest top-25 poll, came out on the wrong side of the battle between two nationally-ranked foes, falling by an 84-76 final score in a back-and-forth contest to bring an end to its 11-game win streak. The Panthers received an at-large bid into the 2020 NCAA Tournament, their fifth straight year appearing in the event.

After suffering their first loss since the season-opener, the Falcons had to bounce back quickly since their next game kicked off GNAC play. The Falcons began the conference slate with three straight tight wins. Albertus first defeated Colby-Sawyer (74-71) on January 18, before topping both Regis (Mass.) College (80-75) and the Saint Joseph College of Maine (99-93) in overtime.

Following back-to-back losses to challenging league foes the University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) (98-79) and Suffolk University (81-68), Albertus rebounded to win its next eight games.

The Falcons' second eight-plus win streak of the season began with a 97-80 victory over Johnson & Wales University on the road.

Albertus then tallied three-straight victories with 100-plus points. The Falcons first knocked off Rivier University by a 108-94 final score on the road on February 8. Albertus then topped Lasell University (105-97) and Norwich University (103-77) in two straight home games. Against the Lasers, Green-Younger reached the 1,000-point plateau with a then career-high 32 points.

It took Green-Younger just two games to set a new career-high, as he poured in 34 points against Emmanuel (Mass.) College on Senior Day on February 18. He helped guide the Falcons to a 97-82 victory over the Saints in their regular-season home finale.

Albertus brought a close to the regular season with a 98-79 win over Anna Maria on the road. With the victory, the Falcons headed into the GNAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 9-2 conference mark.

Albertus began the GNAC Tournament with an 82-79 win over No. 7 Suffolk in the quarterfinals. Albertus avenged the aforementioned loss to the Rams earlier in the year by taking control of a back-and-forth contest in the final three minutes of the second half. Five Falcons finished the game with double-digit points, led by Green-Younger with 23 and Tyreek Perkins (New Haven, Conn.) with 13.

In the GNAC Semifinals, Albertus thrillingly bested Lasell, 95-94, behind an outstanding second-half rally. Trailing by eight points, 87-79, the Falcons needed the heroics of Andrew Rice (West Haven, Conn.) to engineer a comeback. Rice scored 12 of the team's final 16 points to spark a 16-7 run on the way to an Albertus victory.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, their season came to a close in the GNAC Title Game, as the No. 1-seeded Blue Jays of USJ fended off a feverish comeback by Albertus to earn the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Falcons erased a double-digit halftime deficit to tie the game at 80-80 with 1:51 left on the clock, but some clutch free-throw shooting by the home team sealed the win for St. Joseph.

INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The Falcons employed a balanced offensive attack throughout the season, as they had five players average between 15.4 and 9.8 points per game. Leading this group was Green-Younger and Perkins, as the duo were both selected All-GNAC.

Green-Younger earned First Team All-Conference honors after closing out his senior campaign with a team-leading 15.4 points-per-game average. He posted 17 double-digit efforts on the year, including a career-high 34 points against Emmanuel. The senior guard knocked down 49.6% of shots from the field, in addition to ranking third on the team in assists per game (1.7). By the end of the season, Green-Younger also became the 16th player in program history to join the 1,000th-career point club.

Perkins, who was tabbed Third Team All-GNAC, collected end-of-season recognition for the second straight season after being named Second Team All-GNAC last winter. On the year, the junior guard averaged 14.0 points, 2.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. His 2.2 assists per game rank him first on the team, while he was second in points and steals per game. He scored in double-figures 25 times, highlighted by a season-high 32 points against Saint Joseph's on January 25.

Sophomores Terry Dawkins (Bronx, N.Y.), Davon Warner (New Haven, Conn.), and Rice rounded out Albertus' top five in scoring. Dawkins finished the year third on the team with a career-high 13.2 points per game, while also pacing the Falcons with 7.2 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-4-inch forward came alive in the GNAC Tournament, as he poured in 25 points in the win over Lasell and a career-best 27 points against St. Joseph (CT) in the title game.

Warner was the Falcons' best 3-point shooter, leading the team with 59 treys at a 31.2% clip. The second-year guard averaged 10.0 points per game after appearing in all 27 of the Falcons' contests. He was also tied for second on the team in steals per game (1.2) and tied for third in assists per game (1.7). Warner's highlight of the season was his career night against Rivier on February 8, when he sank nine 3-pointers on 9-for-16 shooting from behind the arc for a career-high 27 points.

Rounding out the sophomore contributors was Rice with 9.8 points per game. In addition to being fifth in scoring, the 6-foot-4-inch forward was second in rebounds per game (6.4). Rice finished the season with three games with 18-or-more points, highlighted by his career-best 24-point output against Lasell in the GNAC Semifinals. He also tallied 19 and 18 points in back-to-back wins over Mitchell and George Fox, respectively, in early December.

The Falcons bid farewell to Green-Younger, Damian Grant (Waterbury, Conn.), and Liam Perryman (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) as part of its Senior Day on February 18. Green-Younger tallied a career-high 34 points in the win over Emmanuel, while Perryman recorded six points and six rebounds. The trio helped the Falcons win two GNAC Championships during their tenures, with the team winning a combined 86 games over the four years.

Off the court, freshman forward Justice Washington (Hamden, Conn.) represented the men's basketball team on the 2019 Fall Dean's List (STORY). To make the Dean's List maintained a grade-point average of 3.50 or higher during an academic semester or a grade-point average with no grade below a B during the semester.

 

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