On Tuesday Nov. 17, the Knights basketball squad took on Massasoit Community College, in their first game of the season not coached by Darren Stratton. Stratton was placed on administrative leave after gambling charges, so Assistant Coach Joe Tardif took the head.

Massasoit started the scoring. It took 2-and-a-half minutes and a Matthew Jameson layup for the Knights to get on the board. After they got their opening points, they seemed to stay on track. The Knights came up big soon after with a crisp pass-around-the-court play where the ball ended up in Dominic Dar’s hands; he finished it off with a basket.  At the half, the Knights were up 42-39.

The court seemed a little more quiet without Stratton coaching from the side. This did not deter the Knights’ efforts, however, as Tardif kept NECC on track.

The rest of the game was really close, reaching 71-71 with five minutes left in the game. The Knights ended up losing 82-78.

Thankfully, NECC had another opportunity to win at home that Saturday when they faced UConn at Avery Point, and that’s just what they did. The Knights had points coming from all angles that afternoon: Jameson scored 19 points himself, Bryan Morales nabbed 13 and Julio Vicente picked up 12.

The Knights play five games in December, only one home game.

December schedule: Tuesday Dec. 1 @ Roxbury, Thursday Dec. 3 @ Bunker Hill, Saturday Dec. 5 @ Springfield Tech, Thursday Dec. 10 vs. Southern Maine Community College, Saturday Dec. 12 @ Gateway (CT).