Quincy, MA (February 26, 2022) – The Northern Essex Community College men's basketball team rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit and avenged a pair of regular season losses to Quincy College to take an 86-78 win on the road Saturday afternoon. The win for the Knights will give them their first Region 21 Championship Game appearance since 2009.
The Knights will travel on Sunday to the Community College of Rhode Island for the championship, game time is set for 3:00pm in Warwick. CCRI's lone conference regular season loss was to NECC by a 71-70 final on February 1st on the road at Vin Cullen Fieldhouse.
After Phillip Cunnginham (Haverhill) put NECC up 2-0 in the games opening minute, NECC never saw the lead again in the first half and trailed by a score of 47-33 at the half. The Knights wouldn't see the lead again until just 4:27 remained in the game when Daniel Almarante (Lawrence) sunk a pair free throws to put the NECC up 70-68.
Cunningham and Almarante would lead the offense as they both dropped a team high 20 points. Kevin Monteiro (North Andover) would join them in double-digits as he added 14 points off the bench.
A strong defensive effort in the second half keyed by Cristian Kinsley (Lawrence) held the Granite's leading scorer Doug Alves to no field goals in the second half, which would lead to frustration for Alves as he fouled in the final minutes.
To seal the win, Kinsley would go on to sink six straight free throws over the games final two minutes.
The win for Northern Essex was their 20th of the season as they improved to 20-8 overall, their most wins since the 2008-09 season.