HOBOKEN, N.J. - The Stevens Institute of Technology men's basketball team capped the regular season with one of its best shooting performances of the year, dropping at least 40 in each half in an 86-66 win over the FDU-Florham Devils Saturday on Senior Day at Canavan Arena.
Jack Spellman finished with a game-high 20 points and
Mike Goodall was right behind him with 19.
Matt Leming pitched in 12 and
Harmehar Chhabra made it four Ducks in double figures, adding 11.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Ducks were nearly perfect during a white-hot 9+ minute opening stretch, hitting 11 of their first 12, including all six from beyond the arc.
Chhabra got things started with a three and Spellman made it 5-0 with a layup. FDU sandwiched a pair of buckets around another Spellman layup, but back-to-back three's from
Tommy Scholl and Goodall opened a 13-4 Stevens' lead, drawing a timeout from the Devils' sideline. The Ducks' run continued out of the timeout, two
Kyle Maddison midrange jumpers and a Spellman alley-oop layup from Goodall pushed the run to 12-0 and the lead to 15, 19-4.
Brendan Coughlan and Leming bookended two Spellman free throws as the lead grew to 19, then 20 after Leming capped the 11-for-12 start with yet another three.
Anthony Loscalzo answered an FDU three with a jumper, Spellman followed with back-to-back layups, and a Goodall steal-to-layup extended the lead to 25, 38-13, at the 8:42 mark, but FDU halved the advantage to 12, 46-34, at the half; Chhabra, Goodall (from three), and Spellman added baskets down the stretch for the Ducks; Spellman finished the half with 15 points.
Stevens (18-7, 10-4 MACF) opened the second half with back-to-back three's from Maddison and Goodall, drawing an FDU timeout less than a minute in. Spellman added a free throw, putting the Ducks up 19 at the 18:28 mark. Over the next eight minutes, the lead fluctuated between 15 and 19 before a layup & jumper from Chhabra plus a School layup turned a 15-point lead into a 21-point cushion with 10:33 left. The Red and Gray extended the margin to 24, 74-50 at the 8:32 mark, but the Devils again halved the deficit to 12, 78-66, with four minutes left.
Any further threat of a comeback was quashed by two Spellman free throws and a Goodall three. Scholl and
Jack Liedtka added three free throws for the game's final points.
Before the game, the team's two seniors, Spellman and Liedtka, were honored for their contributions to the program.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Stevens finished 55.4 percent from the floor, their second-best clip of the season. They also shot 46.4 percent from three-point range, their fifth-best performance from beyond the arc this year.
- Spellman's 20-point day marked his highest scoring output in his last 12 games.
- Goodall's 19 points were his seventh time with 13 or more in his last eight outings.
- Leming's 4-for-5 performance from deep produced his first double-digit effort in his last 10 games.
UP NEXT
MAC (MIddle Atlantic Conference) Freedom regular season champions, the Ducks will face the No. 4 seed Arcadia on Wednesday in the conference tournament semifinals at Canavan Arena at 7 p.m.
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