The Suffolk University Men's Basketball team (3-1 overall, 1-0 GNAC) topped the Lasell College Lasers (0-3 overall, 0-1 GNAC) in overtime Tuesday evening, 85-84. The Rams opened their 2010-11 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) league schedule evening the game in the closing seconds of regulation and then taking the lead in the final seconds of overtime to pick up their third win of the season.
Sophomore Matt Pepdjonovic (Quincy, Mass.) had another monster game scoring a career-high 28 points and grabbing 15 rebounds for the 15th double-double of his career. Sophomore Colin Halpin (Melrose, Mass.) hit a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining in overtime to give the Rams the victory.
Trailing 84-83, Halpin went to the line connecting twice as he finished the game with 18 points and nine boards. The back and forth contest saw 11 lead changes.
Lasell had four double digit leads in the contest, as the Lasers lead by 11 points with eight minutes remaining, but the scrappy Rams managed to keep fighting their way back into the game. Suffolk managed to nearly erase a 27 point deficit on Sunday at New England College and have shown plenty of resiliency so far in the young season.
Pedjonovic scored four points in the final twenty seconds of regulation as Lasell had trouble closing out the contest.
Sophomore Jordan Fuller (Oviedo, Fla.) put the Lasers up by three with a minute remaining as he hit one of two free throws. Over the next forty seconds the Lasers would control possession missing a pair of layups while grabbing their own offensive rebounds each time. With Lasell in the bonus junior Derrick Harper (Boston, Mass.) would miss his free throw attempt followed by the Rams racing up the court as Pedjonovic took a pass from freshman Dennis Driftmeyer (Haverhill, Mass.) to put the Rams within one.
The same thing would happen again as the Lasers brought the ball back up the court only to be fouled, this time with Harper again failing to convert from the line as Drfitmeyer got the ball back into the hands of the Rams' 6'6 center for a lay in sending the game into the extra period locked up at 74-74.
Each team would go back and forth over the final five minutes of play, but the edge went to Suffolk as Pepdjonovic could not be stopped in the paint scoring eight points in the overtime period.
Junior Javon Williams (Mattapan, Mass.) put the Lasers up 84-83 with 1:03 remaining in the game. Fuller once again failed to put the Rams away missing a layup as Halpin grabbed the defensive rebound and took the ball up the court being fouled while driving to the hoop. Halpin connected twice as the Rams left Newton with the GNAC victory.
Driftmeyer finished the game with eight assists for Suffolk, while junior Mike Gibbons (Ringwood, N.J.) went 5-for-8 from beyond the arc to finish the game with 15 points. Senior Allan Ray (Lynn, Mass.) collected 11 points and six rebounds for Suffolk.
Sophomore Sean Bertanza (Seymore, Conn.) led all scorers with 29 for the Lasers, while Williams also netted 23 points.
The Rams outrebounded their opponent for the third time in four games as Suffolk held a 47-45 advantage on the glass.
Each team struggled from the free throw line, and both were nearly equal in field goal percentage yet the biggest difference in the contest was Suffolk's ability shoot from three-point land as the Rams were 12-for-21. Along with Gibbons' five, Halpin was also 3-for-4 shooting treys. The Rams also held the edge in second chance points by a 21-7 margin, including 6-0 in the overtime.
Lasell will be back in action next Tuesday as they travel to Amherst College. Suffolk welcomes their neighbors from across the Charles River as they will host the MIT Engineers on Saturday at 2:00pm. MIT was ranked 15th in the national Division-III pre-season poll.