CASTINE, Maine – The Husson University men's basketball team officially locked-up the No. 1 seed in the North Atlantic Conference East Division playoffs thanks to an 81-70 victory on the road over Maine Maritime Academy on Saturday afternoon in NAC play.
In what was an offensive-struggle early on from Husson (17-7, 11-1 NAC) and Maine Maritime (12-9, 8-4 NAC) that saw the score at 6-6 nearly seven minutes into the game, before graduate student Jeremy Moronta connected on a three-pointer to break the tied-score.
Moronta would score the next basket for Husson and tallied the first 11 points of the game for the Eagles, before senior Riles Neff would drill one from beyond the arc to cap-off an 8-0 run for Husson to force a Mariner timeout.
The Eagles would build their lead up to as much as 19 during the opening half behind the stellar play of Moronta, Neff and graduate student Scott Lewis, who orchestrated much of the Husson offense in the middle of the Maine Maritime zone-defense.
The trio of upperclassmen scored all-but three of Husson's 36 first-half points, as the Eagles were able to bog-down the Mariners in the opening half to take a 36-19 lead into the locker room.
The second half was more of the same from Husson, as a layup from Lewis around five minutes into the half would give the Eagles their biggest lead of 21 points, which would be matched one other time during the period.
Maine Maritime was able to shave a bit off of the Husson lead, slimming the deficit to as little as nine with seven second left, after getting it down to 10 four times before that, but the damage from the veterans of the Eagles had already been done, as Husson wrapped up home-court advantage for the NAC playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
Moronta posted a season-high of 29 to lead the Eagles on the day, in addition to grabbing nine rebounds and shooting 11-18 from the floor and 6-8 from the foul line.
Neff contributed another 20-point game, as he drilled six out of 10 shots from long-distance to set a new career-high in three-pointers made, while also grabbing a career-best 11 rebounds.
Lewis was great on both ends of the floor for Husson, contributing 14 points on 5-7 shooting, while also grabbing six rebounds, dishing out seven assists and blocking five shots.
As a team, Husson shot 45.9% from the floor, while holding the Mariners to just 30.8% in the first half to build a big halftime lead. Additionally, the Eagles won the rebounding battle 40-35 and dished out 23 assists on 28 made field goals.
Husson will look to close out the regular season with a win when it heads to the University of Maine at Farmington on Saturday for a 3 p.m. NAC contest.
