Raiders Win Battle of Nashua, Advance to ECAC Finals

Against cross town rival Daniel Webster College, the Raiders of Rivier College wasted no time in taking advantage of their first ECAC tournament appearance in school history.  Just 3 minutes into the game Rivier took an 8-6 lead on a 3-pointer by sophomore Nick Bean and never looked back as the Raiders cruised on to a 75-70 victory.

It was a packed house as both teams brought their fans to the ECAC semifinal match-up between the #6 seeded Daniel Webster College Eagles and the #7 seeded Rivier College Raiders.  The Raider fans had much to cheer about as Rivier never trailed after the 3-pointer by Bean with 17 minutes left in the first half.  The Raiders extended their lead to as much as 12 points in the first half on a layup by senior Kevin Harrington with 8:30 left in the half, but the Eagles were able to go on a run and bring that lead down to only 4 with less than a minute left in the half.  A 3-pointer by senior Felipe Lima extended that lead to 7 as the Raiders took a 38-31 advantage into the locker room.

The beginning of the second half saw the Eagles come out with lots of energy as they were able to cut the lead to only 1 point at 51-50 with 11:00 left in the game.  However, Rivier once again had a response as they went on a 12-0 run to extend the lead to 63-50 and stuck a dagger in the heart of Eagle fans.  The Eagles tried to play catch-up the rest of the game, but could never manage to get the lead below 7 points until the last shot of the game when Brian Inge hit a 3 pointer that finished the game with a Rivier win 75-70.

Kevin Harrington led the Raider’s with 17 points followed by Nick Bean and Lance Bisson who each scored 15.  Lima added 12 points while Donald Poitras had 9 points and 9 rebounds in the Raider win.

The #7 Raider’s will play at 2:00 PM on Sunday, March 8 against #4 Becker College.  Please visit http://www.ecacsports.com/sports/winter/mbkb/index for up to date information regarding the championship game.