Ravens conclude 2009-10 season with a 12-15 record

BOXSCORE

RINDGE, N.H. (February 24, 2010) – The Franklin Pierce University men’s basketball team staged a late-game rally to keep their dreams of a Northeast-10 Tournament bid alive, but it was not to be as UMass-Lowell picked up a 71-68 win on Wednesday in The Fieldhouse in Rindge. The Ravens concluded the 2009-10 season with a 12-15 overall record and a 7-15 mark in the conference. The Riverhawks improved to 16-11 and 13-9 in league play.

Prior to the game, the senior class of Marcus Wellman (Monroe, Conn.) and Terrell Ray (Brooklyn, N.Y.) were honored for their four years of service to the program. Both seniors then took the home court for the final time as they gave everything they had to help Franklin Pierce capture a playoff bid.

In his final game, Ray had a solid 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor and grabbed eight rebounds. Wellman had three points, six rebounds and five assists. He had an opportunity to tie the game at the buzzer, but his three-point attempt was long off the back of the iron.

Despite missing the shot, Wellman had come a long way just to get to that moment. He had suffered an injury during the preseason that the coaching staff felt he could not come back from. Wellman spent the first few games of the season serving as a student assistant coach, but when he was called upon, he returned to the lineup and provided the Ravens with a strong outside shooting presence.

UMass-Lowell had an impressive shooting first half as the Riverhawks shot 50 percent (14-of-28) from the floor and built a 42-32 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

Lowell continued its hot shooting in the early stages of the second half and eventually built a 56-39 lead with 13:15 remaining.

At that point, Franklin Pierce began its late rally as the Ravens went on a 15-4 run to cut Lowell’s lead to 60-54 with 7:40 to go. Wellman kick-started the run with a three-pointer and freshman Curtis Christian (Harlem, N.Y.) aided it with seven points. The seven were part of Christian’s 12 points for the contest.

Kyle Caiola, who had a game-high 19 points, scored the game’s next four points and Kevin Carr added a triple to put UMass-Lowell back up by double-digits at 67-54 with 5:34 remaining.

Junior guard Jeff Manchester (Gorham, Maine), who had 15 points in the game on 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range, drained back-to-back triples and Kinard Dozier (Dedham, Mass.) followed with one of his own to spark a 14-4 run by the Ravens to pull within three at 71-68 with :29 left.

After Caiola missed a free throw with :12 left, Dozier brought the ball back up the court and got it to Wellman in the corner, but his three was just off the mark.

Freshman guard Eric Jean-Guillaume (Stamford, Conn.) was Franklin Pierce’s other double-digit scorer with 15 points. Dozier had six points, four rebounds and five assists.