Haverhill, MA (November, 1 2023) – When the clock struck midnight, the Northern Essex Community College men's basketball team officially opened the junior college basketball season with a convincing win over the visiting Bulldogs of Bunker Hill by a 95-55 final score.

After falling behind 7-4 five minutes into the contest, head coach Darren Stratton took a timeout, which sent the Knights on a run 48-13 run over the final 15 minutes of the first half to take a 52-20 lead into the locker room.

Returning first team All-American guard Luis Reynoso (Lawrence) had an all-around strong performance for the Knights as he came up three assist shy of a triple-double as he finished with 15 points on four of nine shooting from the floor to go along with 12 rebounds and seven assists.

Making his college debut guard Kyoya Sasaki (Tokyo, Japan) added 13 points off the bench while contributing nine rebounds and seven assists of his own. Sophomore Darlin Santiago (Salem, MA) added 11 points to put three nights in double figures.

Ata Savas Kurtulus (Istanbul, Turkey), Camill Palacioglu (Tuebingen, Germany) and Gabe Zorilla (Lawrence) all contributed nine points apiece of the bench.

As a team, NECC shot 43.4 percent from the floor compared to 23.2 for BHCC. The Knights forced 28 turnovers in the contest leading to 26 points.

NECC will hit the road this weekend for a pair of games in the Empire State as they will square off with Kingsborough Community College on Saturday night before face Queensborough Community College on Sunday afternoon.