In December the NECC Knights played 5 games, 4 away and 1 home. They played Roxbury, Bunker Hill, Springfield Tech, Southern Maine CC and Gateway (Conn).

On Dec. 1 at Roxbury, the Knights won 83-79. Roxbury outscored the Knights in the second half, 44-36, but that was not enough to reel in the “W.” Knights player Kevin Brito scored the most for NECC with 18 points. Matt Jameson and Bryan Morales were close behind, both with 13 points.

Roxbury did top the Knights in 3-point field goal percentage, with 30 percent compared to NECC’s 27 percent. They also beat the Knights free throw percentage and made more rebounds than the Knights.

After Roxbury, the team traveled to Bunker Hill and was handed their only loss in December and their first road loss of the season. Bunker Hill defeated the Knights 122-102.

The high scoring game saw Knights, Morales score 22 points, Dominic Dar with 19, and Jonathan Paulino scored 14 points.

On the other side of the court, Bunker Hill players Fredens Deneus and David Stewart scored 21 and 22 points respectively and both made 4 out of 5 of their free throw attempts.

NECC then traveled to Springfield Tech and won 99-64. Jameson and Matt Lynch shined in this game. Jameson scored 16 points and Lynch had his best game of the season, scoring 15 points and made 3 out of 5 of his 3-point attempts. Each team recorded 38 rebounds.

When NECC came home after their 3 games on the road, they faced Southern Maine Community College in one of the most exciting games of the season. The Knights won the really close game 81-76.

The Knights and Southern Maine traded the lead multiple times in the second half. Morales was once again the star for NECC, he scored 25 points and made 7 out the 14 3-point attempts. Dar scored 19 points.

In the final game of December, the Knights traveled to Gateway (Conn.) and capped off the month with a close 80-72 win. The game was in Gateway’s hands after the first half, up on NECC 35-25. This didn’t stop the Knights though, who scored 55 points in the 2nd half to get the win. Morales scored 21 points and made 100% of his free throws.

The Knights play 10 games in January, 6 home and 4 away.

The Knights basketball team is off to an undeniably hot start. Since NECC is located in Massachusetts, most of the team is from the same state. There is one player, though, that is from the neighboring state of New Hampshire.

Matt Lynch, a Business Administration major from Plaistow, N.H., is in his second year at NECC and playing in his second season for the basketball team. He had not played any organized basketball in Mass. until last season.

“I played Varsity Basketball at Timberlane Regional High School. My senior year (I helped) the Owls bring home their first win of the season versus Keene after starting 0 and 17 … we also put an end to the historic 81 game Division I losing streak,” Lynch said.

With the 11-4 start that the Knights have worked up to, some might call the great record surprising or even attribute it to luck. That’s not what the Knights believe: they expect to win every game on the schedule.

“Not one player on this team is surprised by our hot start. We’re surprised we’ve even lost. Every game we have at least three or four guys step up to make plays and contribute to our winning success,” Lynch said.

“All 12 of us are playing this game to add another basketball banner to our gymnasium.”

After the first couple weeks of the season, the team had to adapt when Assistant Coach Joe Tardif stepped into the head coaching position. Since Tardif took over, the team has not lost a step and have garnered a winning record in his time so far.

“Coach Tardif has handled the head coach position exceedingly well and continues to be a role model and great influence in all of our lives on and off court,” Lynch said.

Under Tardif, Lynch might have played his best game of the season on the road against Springfield Tech. He hit three 3-pointers, shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, scored 15 points and recorded 5 assists and 2 rebounds. This, all while coming off the bench.

“My ultimate goal for school and basketball is to graduate from NECC on the dean’s list and win a championship with my teammates,” Lynch said.

Lynch is also entertaining the idea of transferring to a four-year university at the end of the school year. He says he will be going to Salem State University to play basketball for the Vikings.

Lynch may be moving on after the year but he has only good things to say about NECC and the Knights.

“My basketball shining moment has been here at NECC developing skills, mental toughness and building character and values which I’ve acquired from the coaching staff. It was a tough transition into my freshman year from playing basketball for a public New Hampshire high school, to understanding, learning and training for the extremely fast-paced game style we run here at NECC. Now, as a sophomore, I realize it was worth every damn second.”

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).

On Nov. 12, the NECC Knights basketball team hosted MassBay Community College for the annual Veterans Day game. The theme was in honor of Veterans Day, with American flags everywhere and plenty of veterans in attendance.

MassBay had a 3-0 record going into the game and were fired up from the start. They were gaining all the offensive and defensive rebounds and were an all-around bigger team than the Knights. Knights coach, Darren Stratton noticed his team wasn’t playing up to par and turned it around quick with his aggressive but positive coaching style, keeping his team in check.

Late in the first half, a player from MassBay was taking a free throw. The whole gymnasium was silent. Then Jordan Sands of MassBay, who was lined up for the free throw play, looked at NECC’s Felix Moore and said a certain four letter expletive that got him ejected from the game.

After the ejection, NECC’s Dominic Dar got a free throw of his own and tied the game 33-33 with seven and a half minutes left in the first. The Sands ejection completely turned the game around for the Knights.

Moore hit a couple 3-pointers and the Knights went up 56-47 at halftime.

At the half, Athletic Director Sue MacAvoy took to the court and honored the veterans in attendance. These veterans included Charles H. Boule, Richard Jameson and Samson Racioppi.

When the second half began, it looked a lot like the beginning of the first. It was all MassBay — and they even tied the game at 65 after seven minutes of play. Coach Stratton got his players back on track though and MassBay’s heat cooled down a lot.

NECC’s Matthew Jameson began scoring big points, including some three-pointers; he then recorded a huge steal and scored with seven and a half minutes remaining which all but sealed up the game.

The Knights beat MassBay, 99-91, boosting their record to 3-1 on the season.

The Knights basketball team’s season starts on November 3rd at NHTI, which means they have little time to improve their play if the hope to build upon their losing 12-16 season last year.

They put a very young team on the court last season only having 2 sophomores on the roster. This meant growing pains for a team with little to no chemistry because they were mostly all new to the team. Sophomore, Matt Jameson believes the team can make great strides this upcoming season.

“This year we have a lot more guys returning so we will have more experience so that will help and we just need to continue to focus on defense and the offense will come along with that,” Jameson said.

Jameson also talked about his goals for the season.

“My goals are to help lead the team to a winning season, make the playoffs, improve all the parts of my game from last year, and hopefully win a championship.”

It will be a tough task for the team to make the playoffs, but Jameson is very confident in the Knights. Athletic Director, Sue MacAvoy is also confident in the team and is confident in Jameson.

“Matt (Jameson) is a good player, I think he’ll be a good leader on the court this year,” MacAvoy said.

Another thing the Knights have going for them is familiarity with their coach, Darren Stratton. For most of the players it will be their second year under Stratton, but Stratton has been around coaching the Knights basketball team for 17 years.

“Coach Stratton is a great coach, he knows a lot about the game. He is also a great guy that does a lot for his players,” Jameson said.

MacAvoy also had much praise for the coach.

“I put him into the head coaching role, and he’s done a phenomenal job here. He truly cares about his players. He cares for them like a family and he is just an extremely hard worker,” MacAvoy said. She made sure to highlight that he truly does care for the players on his team.

The Knights have a lot of work to do but with some hard work, effort, a leader like Jameson, and a coach like Coach Stratton, they can do some big things this season.