Strong Second Half Gives Northern Essex 5th Place National Finish

by Dan Blair

Haverhill, MA (03/18/2024) — For the second consecutive day the Northern Essex Community College men's basketball team went into the locker room at halftime facing a deficit and for the second consecutive day, the Knights rallied to come out on top. On Saturday, Northern Essex trailed Montgomery County (PA) 36-26 at the break before outscoring the Mustangs by a 36-23 margin in the second stanza to secure the 62-59 victory. With the win the Knights finish the season with an overall record of 32-2 and for the second consecutive year pick up a fifth place national finish.

With the game tied at 57 apiece, a three point basket from Ben Nkwantah (Methuen) with 1:32 remaining in the contest put the Knights in front for the remainder of the game 60-57, before a pair of free throws from Luis Reynoso (Lawrence) with 28 seconds remaining sealed the final score.

NECC opened the games second half on a 9-0 run, but it wasn't until just seven minutes remained in the contest that the Knights tied the game up at 53 and took a lead they would relinquish with 5:05 remaining in the game on a layup from Reynoso.

For the second day in a row Reynoso was the games high scorer with 26 points. He was lone Knight in double figures, Nkwantah finished with nine points. Darlin Santiago (Salem) added seven points as the Knights bench outscored the Mustangs by a 22-14 margin.

Kyoya Sasaki (Tokyo, Japan) was a workhorse for the Knights on both ends of the court as he picked up four steals and seven rebounds to go along with six points.