Tag: Curry College Men’s Basketball

Men’s Basketball Falls on Senior Night, 70-56

BY ALEC MENDES // Feb. 18, 2018 //

Curry College men’s basketball gets out-muscled by Eastern Nazarene College, 70-56, en route to their third consecutive 24-loss season.

The Colonels came out battling on their senior night, battling to a 36-34 lead at the half.

Sophomore guard Jared Thorpe-Johnson produced a big first half, dropping 15 of his game-high 22 points to help give the Colonels the lead.

Five minutes into the half, the Colonels extended their lead to seven but the Lions began to roar back eventually capturing the lead with 10 minutes remaining in the second half.

Despite shooting a better percentage than the Lions, the Colonels were severely out-rebounded all game but it especially hurt them on the offensive boards where Eastern Nazarene held a 12-2 advantage in the second half.

Those second-chance points and their free throws did in the Colonels.  They could only convert on seven of their 15 opportunities while the Lions reached the line 23 times and sunk 16 of them.

Senior center John Coleman ended the game with seven rebounds but he knew it was an issue for the Colonels.

“All season long we’ve struggled on the boards,” said Coleman.  “It’s hard because we don’t have the size some of the other schools have and it ended up hurting us again”.

Senior guard Barak Schwartz was disappointed with loss but happy with how his team battled all game.

“It’s been a tough season, it’s not the way we wanted to go out, we definitely wanted to get the victory for the fans in the last game,” said Schwartz.

The loss dropped the Colonels to 1-24 for the second straight year, putting the team’s record at 2-73 for the past three seasons.

 

Men’s Basketball Falls to Endicott, 72-62

BY JASON POMBO // Jan. 28, 2018 //

The Curry College men’s basketball team fell to the Endicott College on Saturday, 72-62, in a hard-fought battle where free throws proved to be the difference.

The Gulls came out flocking as they raced out to an early 11-2 run. Such an adversity perhaps would have caused previous Colonel teams to give up, this year’s bunch battled back in the first half, entering halftime only down by seven.

As the second half began, both teams went back-and- forth. The Colonels were able to tie the game at 45, with 9:30 remaining in the game. However, Endicott did not go away as they pulled away late to beat Curry with a final score of 72-62.

The game should have been a bit closer with the two teams shooting nearly identically from the field with the Colonels actually shooting 11% better from the arc, and with the Gulls being out-rebounded, 42-41.

But the game was decided at the free throw line.  The Gulls were sent to the line for 31 shots and converted 18 of those.  The Colonels were only able to muster 10 shots from the line and made eight of them.  The 10 point discrepancy in the free throws just so happened to be the amount the Colonels lost by.

Despite the result, Colonels coach Matt LeVangie was pleased with the team’s overall
performance.

“I think we played really… we could have packed it in, but our guys held their own,” said
LeVangie.  “I take a lot of positives away from this game, I think we’re taking giant steps.”

Sophomore guard Jared Thorpe-Johnson led the Colonels with 15 points on 23 minutes.

But despite the Colonels’ defensive efforts, they couldn’t contain sophomore guard Keith Brown, who led the game in scoring with 21 points in 35 minutes while also contributing nine rebounds for the Gulls.

The loss marks their 17th consecutive loss and drops the Colonels to 1-18 on the year.  Next up is a trip to Nichols on Tuesday, Jan. 30.  Curry will have a lot of work to do as they take on the top-ranked Bison who enter Tuesday’s game with a 16-3 record.

Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. in Dudley, Mass.

Men’s Hoops Gearing Up For New Season

BY BRANDON WILFORE // Nov. 16, 2017 //

Curry College men’s basketball is back and looking to build some continuity along with a culture for the 2017-2018 season.

Coming off of a 1-24 campaign in the previous season, the Colonels averaged just under 64 points a game. Which is fine as long as you hold down the fort on the other end of the court.

That wasn’t the case as they allowed 90+ points six times last season, averaging 84.8 points allowed on the season.

Head coach Matt LeVangie took over the team in 2015 and they have been 1-49 since, losing by an average of 41.5 points a game.

The Colonels have also struggled to keep a team in tact.  They have only had a combined six seniors in the past two years and only have two for the 2017-2018 campaign.   In addition, only seven players from last year’s squad will return this season.

But the team hopes that this year they will be able to find some continuity.

Barak Swarttz is a senior from Newton, MA who transferred last season from Elmira College in New York but he was injured and couldn’t play the entire last season.

“I think being in the leadership position as a captain, my leadership has been able to set the tone for the team academically and on the court, which has been lacking in the past in this program.” Swarttz said.

The Colonels are led by Swarttz, co-captain Louis Stein and center John Coleman as their three upperclassmen.

Another year, another young team.

Curry will again try to attack teams with an inexperienced bunch for the second year in a row as five freshman and six sophomores made the roster. All are going to be tasked with playing very important minutes down the stretch.

That sophomore class was dwindled down to six from 10 last season when they were freshman.

“With such a big sophomore class, those guys need to understand the impact they are going to have.” Swarttz mentioned when asked about how important the youth will play if they want to string some wins together this season.

The lack of on-court experience makes it an uphill battle for the Colonels in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC).

But on top of that, they get some added salt poured on the wound with a lack of size.

The Colonels will roll out a fourteen-man roster with only four players 6’4” or above.

Conference rival and perineal powerhouse Nichols will come prepared with eight guys above 6’3”.

Without enough size, Curry will be forced to shoot more from three point range, something sophomore Jared Thorpe-Johnson excelled at last season by shooting 98 times from behind the arc and burying 42% of those shots.

Curry has some good pieces to hopefully improve upon the past two abysmal seasons.

The starting five is looking like it’s going to be Stein at the point, Swarttz at the shooting guard position, Johnson at small forward, Kieran Carroll at power forward and Coleman rounding it out at the center position.

Their first game comes this Saturday Nov. 17, at the UMass Dartmouth Tournament.

Their first opponent will be Castleton University who beat the Colonels by 14 points last season, but will be without their three top contributors from a season ago.