Johnson & Wales Men’s Basketball Knocks Off Emmanuel 80-62
Release at will
February 10, 2004
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Johnson & Wales University men’s basketball team picked up an impressive 80-62 win against Emmanuel in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference matchup at the Harborside Recreation and Athletic Center on Tuesday night. With the win the Wildcats retained at least a tie for first-place in the league standings.
Johnson & Wales senior Rohan Russell (Providence, R.I.) led the way for the Wildcats with a game-high 34 points while sophomore Brian Fernandes (Fall River, Mass.) added 11 points, two rebounds and two steals in the win. Leading the way for Emmanuel was junior Bobby Brown (Syracuse, Utah) who scored 18 points while junior Michael Hale (Scituate, Mass.) added 13 points and five rebounds in the setback
JWU jumped out to an early lead and held a 21-6 advantage after a three-pointer from Russell with 12:35 left in the half. The Wildcats grew their lead to 20 points late in the first half after a layup from Russell gave them a 44-24 lead with 2:57 left. Johnson & Wales took the 48-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Emmanuel responded in the second half, however and used a 22-5 run to cut the lead to single digits (56-49) after a three-pointer from Brown with 11:09 left in the game. The visiting Saints would get as close as two after a layup from junior Argenis Mendez (Roslindale, Mass.) made the score 58-56 with 8:20 on the clock. That would be as close as they would get, however as the Wildcats used a 22-6 run in the closing minutes to take the 80-62 victory.
With the win Johnson & Wales improves to 14-7, 11-3 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference while Emmanuel falls to 7-13, 6-8 in league play. The Wildcats will return to action on Thursday, February 12th when they travel to Emerson for a GNAC contest at 8:00 p.m.