No. 14 Men's Basketball Downs Johnson & Wales, 102-80; Montagnino Scores 1,000th Career Point

BEVERLY, Mass. — The No. 14 nationally ranked Endicott men's basketball team went wire-to-wire over Johnson & Wales, 102-80, to extend its winning streak to a program-record 14 in Saturday afternoon's Conference of New England (CNE) matchup from MacDonald Gymnasium.

Entering the day at 990 career points, Marcus Montagnino (Gloucester, Mass.) notched 25 points (9-12 FG, 1-2 3PT, 6-6 FT) against the Wildcats to surpass the 1,000 career point total. He also amassed 10 rebounds, six assists, and two steals in his 34 minutes of play.

Elijah Kinney (Nashville, Tenn.) poured in 30 points (10-16 FG, 2-2 3PT, 8-9 FT) and hauled down eight rebounds in 30 minutes, while Matt Boen (Mansfield, Mass.) scored 20 points (7-10 FG, 2-4 3PT, 4-5 FT), and secured two rebounds.

After the Gulls took hold of a 19-point lead in the first half (35-16, 8:22), the Wildcats scrapped together a 29-16 run to close the half, making it just a 51-45 game.

At the 9:46 mark, Montagnino ducked underneath and layed in his 10th and 11th points of the contest, sending him over the 1,000 career point threshold.

To open the second half, the Blue and Green jumped out to a 14-4 spurt to expand the lead to 16 (65-49) in the opening 4:13 of play.

From there, the Wildcats never got to within 10 points of the Gulls throughout the rest of the contest.

Endicott pushed its lead to a game-high 22 in the final moments, thanks to a triple from Max Grenert (Beverly, Mass.) and a two-for-two trip to the charity stripe from Joey DaSilva (Windham, N.H.), finalizing the 102-80 result.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The 14-game winning streak tied the the 2014-15 and 2003-04 teams for the longest streak in program history.
• Montagnino became the 20th member of the program's 1,000 point club.
• Endicott holds a commanding 14-2 record in the all-time series.
• Johnson and Wales' Alvin Baez (Providence, R.I.) dropped a game-high 46 points in the matchup, including 26 second half points. 
• 12-0 start in conference play is best in program history.

WHAT'S NEXT

No. 14 Endicott (20-1, 12-0 CNE) heads to the University of New England on Wednesday, February 11th for a 7:30 PM CNE tipoff. Johnson & Wales (3-18, 2-10 CNE) hosts Wentwoth on Wednesday, February 11th for a 7:30 PM CNE contest. 

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(Photo Credit - Kiera Mallett '28)