Walters and Arsenault Team Up Behind the Arc to Defeat Mustangs 71-55

NEWTON, Mass. – Lasell College made twelve of the twenty-four three-pointers attempted on Saturday afternoon, which helped them to a 71-55 victory over host Mount Ida College in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball rivalry game at the Mount Ida College Athletic Center.

The Lasers improve to 6-13 overall and 5-8 in the GNAC, while the Mustangs fall to 2-10 in conference play and 4-15 overall.

Brock Walters (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Scott Arsenault (Walpole, Mass.) combined to hit nine three-pointers on 14 attempts for the Lasers, who held a nine-point lead at halftime and never trailed in the game, withstanding a Mount Ida run that pulled the deficit back to just a point four and a half minutes into the second half.

Freshman Patrick McKearney (Avon, Conn.) and sophomore Ethan Dujon (Warwick, R.I.) each scored 14 points in the loss for Mount Ida.

The teams had trouble finding their footing early on, with Mount Ida's first field goal taking seven minutes to fall, a three-pointer by Joey DeFillippi (Bristol, Conn.), who scored 12 points, handed out four assists and collected three steals.

DeFillippi, who was 4-8 from downtown, made another three-point jumper a minute and a half later to cut the Lasell deficit to 11-8 after Arsenault and Richard O'Brien (Manchester, N.H.) had opened up the scoring for the Lasers.

McKearney began his day with a layup and a dunk, and he had ten points by halftime, but Walters was 4-5 from downtown in the first half and he accounted for three-straight scoring possessions from the Lasers with three-pointers to help keep the Mustangs at bay.

A jumper, rebound, and three-pointer sequence by Arsenault gave Lasell their biggest lead of the first half, 30-18 with 2:52 left in the frame.

Mount Ida opened the second half on a 9-2 run, including four points by Dujon, to cut the deficit to two points, 35-33, at the 16:25 mark. Brendan Cunningham (Quincy, Mass.) hit a three-pointer to get Mount Ida as close as they would come at 37-36, as Arsenault answered with a triple of his own the next time down the floor and then hit again a minute later.

Senior Treace Macklin (Brockton, Mass.) converted a three-point play en route to a seven-point performance and then hit a jump shot to twice keep the deficit to four points, but the visitors opened up their advantage again at 9:41 with a three-point play of their own, finished by Yordan Villalon (Miami, Fla.) and another triple by Walters.

Walters made a pair of free throws with 7:10 remaining to push the Lasell lead to ten points, and it stayed in double digits for the rest of the afternoon, as Pedro Pabon (Queens, N.Y.) finished off his 14-point performance with nine points in the last eight minutes.

Junior Logan Liberty (Duxbury, Vt.) led the Lasers on the glass with 10 rebounds to go with his seven points, and he also drew three straight charges early in the game. Walters chipped in with eight rebounds, as the Lasers held a 39-24 edge on the glass.

Mount Ida got a game-high five assists from freshman point guard Jayson Clark (Austin, Texas), a number matched by Lasell senior Jeremy Daniel (Bridgeport, Conn.).

Outside of DeFillippi, the Mustangs were just 1-13 from behind the three-point line and the team shot 40% from the field, while the Lasers shot at a 45.8% clip.

Cunningham and Dujon were the high rebounders for Mount Ida, with four apiece.

Mount Ida hosts nationally ranked Albertus Magnus College their next time out, which will take place on Tuesday, February 10^th at 6:00 pm.

Lasell will travel north the same day for a 4:30 pm GNAC test on the road at Rivier.