Ganesh leads Men’s Hoops to 71-65 Triumph over Suffolk

Newton, Mass. (01/12/13) – The Lasell College men's basketball team earned their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference victory, 71-65 over the visiting Rams from Suffolk University. Lasell improved to 2-12 on the season and 1-6 in the conference while Suffolk dropped to 4-8 on the year and 2-3 in league play.

Brandon Ganesh (West Palm Beach, Fla.) scored a game-high 28 points and passed out five assists to help the Lasers pick up their first conference victory of the year. Don Stephens (West Palm Beach, Fla.) added 12 points, scoring in double figures for the second straight game and junior forward Chris Canino (Hartford, Conn.) pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds for Lasell while scoring eight points.

Chris Torres (Brockton, Mass.) was one of four Rams in double figures scoring, netting 18 points on 6-10 shooting from the field. Jhonneris Mendez (Boston, Mass.) chipped in 14 points, while Matt Powers (Westwood, Mass.) added 12 points and Caleb Unni (Winchester, Mass.) chipped in 11.

Lasell held the visitors to 38.7% shooting from the field and 2-13 from long distance, while shooting 40.7% from the field including 9-25 from three point territory.

The tightly contested first half saw two ties and six lead changes, that resulted in the visitors taking a 36-34 lead at the intermission.

Lasell took a one point lead with 18 minutes remaining on a three point play by Ganesh, but Suffolk responded by scoring 13 of the next 15 points to build a 52-42 lead with just under 13 minutes remaining. Four straight points by sophomore Frank Apisa (Branchburg, N.J.) and a Ganesh trifecta cut the deficit to 52-49 with 11:32 to play in the contest.

A Mendez layup pushed the visitors lead back to five at 54-49, before back-to-back three's by Ganesh and Brock Walters (Jacksonville, Fla.) gave Lasell a 55-54 lead at the 8:58 mark. A free throw by Colin Halpin (Melrose, Mass.) knotted the score at 55-55, and Ganesh and Unni traded triples to make the score 58-58 with 6:17 remaining.

 Walters scored inside for Lasell, and Ganesh scored four straight to put the hosts ahead 64-58 with just under five minutes to play. Mendez scored four straight points to trim the deficit to two, and a Torres free throw cut the Lasell lead to one at 66-65 with 1:25 to play.

After a Lasell miss, Apisa came up with a big block on a Torres pull-up jumper, and the Lasers closed out the 71-65 victory from the foul line.

Suffolk will return to action on January 15^th, when they visit conference leading Albertus Magnus, while Lasell will be off until January 17 when they travel to Norwich University for a 7:30 p.m. GNAC contest.