On Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. NECC Knights faced Massasoit Community College for a conference game at the Sports and Fitness Center at Haverhill Campus.
The Knights defeated Massasoit 66-54 to snap their four game losing streak.
It was the second give away of the season. All fans in attended received a Matt D’Amato “Mullet Mamba” t-shirt, including his teammates was supporting D’Amato by wearing it before the game.
Knights was looking to snap a four-game losing streak their overall record was 4-7 three games under .500 coming into Dec.9 game and 2-2 in conference games.
Before the game I asked the head coach Darren Stratton, what is the key to play well and to try to break the 4 game losing streak ?
“I think what they need to do is just focused I think were beating our self against Quincy we currently beat our self against CCRI we beat our self…Daniel (Almarante) right now is one of the only points guard and teams is taking advantage of that, that understanding we’re able to get pressure and we’re just throwing the ball away we need to settle down relax move the basketball…” said Stratton.
The Knights did not have Cristian Kinsley of Lawrence, Jason Parello of Lawrence, Elijah Haas of Haverhill and Cameron Stratton of Haverhill all of them were out due to injuries except for Cameron Stratton he is out due to health issues.
Kinsley missed five games heading into Dec. 9 contest “Cristian Kinsley goes to revaluation in January to see if he can gets cleared right know the prognosis is he supposed to be back by the second week of January the problem with him is he doesn’t have full range of motion in his shoulder yet…” said Stratton.
Parello got injured in his last game against Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) “Right know it wasn’t a fracture, so it was great but the diagnosis is he has a heal bruise which put him out for two weeks put him out until the end of the semester,” said Stratton.
Hass missed two games prior to Dec. 9 match up “Elijah Haas has a pending issues that we need clearance from a doctor from him. Losing him really hurts because he is a viral part of our scoring,” said Stratton.
Cameron Stratton missed three games heading into Dec. 9 game “Cameron we loss which is a vital part as you see were struggling in the point guard position right know. He handled a lot of that for us.Cameron, he has been sick he was in the hospital, right know he got a double a ern infection with a high fever…” said Darren Stratton.
The first period during the game the Knights did not came aggressive as they did against CCRI. In the first four minutes and three seconds in the game they were outscored 7-0 and they committed three fouls in less then five minutes. They started slow and did not have momentum but as the first period progressed they were starting to click in, and they were working on those little mistakes, so it would not cost them the game. They ended the first period strong thanks to a wide open three point shot from Greg Duran of Lawrence.
“Greg did an excellent job not as much as the three pointer but defensively he is a spot for us he is one of (Assistant) coach (Joe) Tardif in the aspect of he mentioned to me to give him a shot… we had guys on foul trouble Daniel (Almarante) pick two quick foul Phillip (Cunningham) pick two quick fouls Kevin (Monteiro) had two quick fouls so we were dealing with some foul trouble issue so we went to Greg knowing what we are going to get out of Greg anything Greg give us offensively is a huge plus because we do not expected defensively we expect every single night from Greg,” said Stratton.
Duran of Lawrence just played seven minutes during the game including scoring three points the three pointer late in the first period.
The Knights in the first period had nine fouls while Massasoit had eight and the Knights had a two points lead at the half 27 to 25.
Having a two-point advantage at the half did not change the mentality and the game plan “It didn’t really change the game plan every time at the half we think is zero zero it doesn’t matter if we were down two or up two we would’ve came the same way at half time,” said Jaleek Urena of Methuen.
The Knights came aggressive attacking the zone as they began the period with a 7-0 run and Massasoit fought back. Massasoit had a 7-0 run as well on their own after the Knights struck back with a 10-0 run. The Knights fought through it and it frustrated Massasoit knowing it is going to be difficult for them to comeback against this Knights team and the time was running out. “We played hard we ran in the court and we got fast break and we got defensive stop and we got a lot of basket in and pretty much get us get the lead,” said Philip Cunningham of Haverhill.
Cunningham played 37 minutes with 12 points, nine rebound and two assist.
The Knights in the second half committed eight fouls one foul less then the first period while Massasoit committed 10.
Metin Yavuz at the last play of the game it looked like he got injured. When the game ended, he was attended to by Maureen the trainer. “I think it was his IT band Metin is seeing Maureen she said that she will evaluate him tomorrow… but the last play of the game he said he got knee in his hip area which it was his IT band that went all the way down to his ankle he felt numbness …” said Stratton.
The Knights defeated Massasoit 66-54 to snap their four game losing streak. They will be on the road on Sunday Dec. 12 to face against Holyoke game time is scheduled to be at 6 p.m.
