The Suffolk University Men's Basketball team nearly erased a 17-point deficit in the final six minutes of Tuesday's Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) quarterfinals, but fell 72-71 to Johnson & Wales University.
It was a wild ending to a game that almost seemed out of reach for the Rams. Trailing by ten points, 67-57 with 3:14 left on the clock the Rams made their move. Senior Colin Halpin (Melrose, Mass.) would hit a three-pointer, before back-to-back layups by senior Chris Torres (Brockton, Mass.) and freshman Aury Leyva (Miami, Fla.) brought the Rams within one possession.
After a missed layup the Rams went back up the court when freshman Caleb Unni (Winchester, Mass.) netted a three-pointer of his own to bring the score to a 67-67 standstill with 1:16 remaining.
Junior Curtis Lucas (Providence, R.I.) then put the Wildcats back up by three with a trey of his own before freshman Quarry Greenway (Westchester, N.Y.) hit a pair of free-throws to make it a five-point game with thirty seconds left.
Suffolk would answer though as senior Matt Pepdjonovic (Quincy, Mass.) put in a lay-up as part of his 14-point night for the Rams.
The Rams would send the Wildcats to the line two times in the closing seconds, and both times Johnson & Wales would miss.
With eight seconds left and time running out for the Rams, the Wildcats didn't let Suffolk get off the long shot for the tie, instead decided to foul sending Leyva to the line. He would connect on both to make it a 72-71 game with eight seconds left.
Junior Esaie Touze (Providence, R.I.) had a chance to seal the game for the Wildcats with eight seconds left, but he missed his free-throw with Unni grabbing the defensive rebound and heading up court for the Rams' last offensive possession to save their season. The freshman guard made it all the way through the lane but his layup went off the rim and out ending things for Suffolk.
The Wildcats finished with four players in double digits in scoring as Lucas had a team-high 19 points. Greenway recorded a double-double with 18 points and led all rebounders with 10 on the evening, while senior Dan Barbour (Bridgeport, Conn.) and junior Jordan Jones (Providence, R.I.) tallied 13 points apiece.
Torres led all scorers on the evening as he turned in 23 points for Suffolk. He turned things on in the second half as he scored 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting from the field.
Pepdjonovic netted 14, while Halpin scored 13 on the evening. After a slow start Halpin was 3-for-4 in the second half, including 2-for-3 from three-point land.
Leyva finished the night with eight points, three assists and a pair of steals.
The loss wraps up the Suffolk season as they finished with a10-16 overall mark.