Daymeann Stewart | Writing Scots

AJ Terry had a career night for Gordon with twenty points and fourteen rebounds

Eric Demers had thirty-one points and four assists

(Wenham MA) Gordon played its best game of the season and defeated Curry, 106-84, on Tuesday night.

“We needed a game like that,” said GC coach Tod Murphy afterwards. “We’ve been struggling lately.”

The Scots (9-9) had lost three straight before tonight’s stat-happy performance.

The Colonels (5-14) ended a 77-game losing streak in the Commonwealth Coast Conference with a win last week over Western New England. Combine that with Gordon’s 3-game losing streak and tonight’s contest had some ominous possibilities for Gordon.

And that was the way it looked for the first 15 ½ minutes of the first half.

Jared Thorpe-Johnson (23 points and 9 rebounds)

The Colonels made shots and the Scots made shots. The first team to cool off was going to be in trouble.

On this night, it was the team from Milton (MA).

Curry had a 33-32 lead with 4:50 left ‘til halftime. Then the bottom fell out for them.

The Colonels didn’t score another point in the half. They missed eight shots including five three’s. They also had four turnovers.

Meanwhile, Gordon kept right on putting up points (sixteen unanswered) hitting six of eight shots including two three’s.

Daymeann Stewart (26 points) and Josh Crutchfield

Eric Demers (31 points) had two 3’s in this lengthy segment of good offense and defense.

The Scots led, 48-33, at the half.

The closest the visitors could get in the second half was thirteen points (64-51). The lead reached twenty points for good with 6 ½ minutes left and the benches cleared for much of the rest of the game.

“I thought that Eric turned the game around for us with his unselfishness,” added Coach Murphy. “He made some extra passes and suddenly his teammates were doing the same thing.”

Gordon had a season-high twenty assists. Eric has a season-high four assists.

AJ Terry looks to pass

Senior AJ Terry had his best game as a Scot. He recorded his third double/double with career highs in points (20) and rebounds (14). AJ added five assists to an impressive outing.

Curry had big games from two seniors. Daymeann Stewart put twenty-six points together with six assists. Teammate Jared Thorpe-Johnson had twenty-three points and nine rebounds.

“We’d like to get hot in the final seven games and get a home game in the tournament,” said Coach Murphy afterwards. “You get into the tournament and it’s anyone’s ballgame.”

Parker Omslaer (13 points) gets two

The current CCC standings would suggest that only Endicott (10-1) and Curry (1-9) seem destined to finish where they currently are. After that everyone has a chance to move up………or down. Nichols and Western New England are 6-4. Wentworth and UNE are 5-5. Gordon and Salve Regina are 4-5. Roger Williams is 4-6.

The Scots face all the teams on the list and Endicott as well in the seven games left.

Only seven teams qualify for the post-season. It’s like musical chairs; one of the teams in between Endicott and Curry won’t have a seat at the tournament table.

Coach Murphy: “One of the points of emphasis at halftime was that we need to attack the basket and kick it out and we’ll get open three’s.”

Josh Crutchfield

Josh Crutchfield: “We had a good energy level tonight. It was nice to win and see everyone play. This season has humbled me because during my first two years we were so successful. We can always play better defense. I’m ready for Saturday (Endicott). It’s why we play basketball. If you can’t get hyped up for Saturday, you’re in the wrong sport.”

Saturday (3PM) at the Bennett Center the nearby Gulls (Beverly) will be in the house. It will also be Senior Day. AJ Terry and Eric Demers are the two seniors on the team. The Scots fell in overtime to Endicott earlier this month.

Eric Demers’ career point total is now at 2288. He has scored 30+ points in ten straight games. The new scoreboards provide the point totals for each of the players in the game so now there is some certainty as to how Eric is doing in each home game.

Justin Yu reached a career high in assists (four).

Box from the game.

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)