Golden Bears stifle Seahawks in 2nd to win 63-58

NEWPORT, R.I. - Western New England University men's basketball opened the second half on a 20-2 run to overtake Salve Regina University and win, 63-58, in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at the Rodgers Recreation Center. The Golden Bears snap a three-game losing skid in Newport and improve to 4-11 overall and 2-7 in the conference.

Salve Regina (11-5; 6-3 CCC) squanders its second-straight double-digit halftime lead after Curry College erased a 17-point deficit on Saturday before the Seahawks prevailed in overtime, 69-67.

The Seahawks shot under 50 percent from the free-throw line (11 of 23) and made only two of nine attempts in the second half.

First-year starting guard Tommy Keyes (Berkley, Mass.) started the scoring with a 3-pointer at 18:47. After a Dennis Rinaldi (Harrison, N.Y.) free throw gave the visitors a two-point lead (14-12) at 12:41, Scott St. Lawrence's (Litchfield, N.H.) jumper at 12:16 started a 19-5 run for the Seahawks over the next six minutes for their largest lead.

Patrick Dinneen (Medfield, Mass.) and Eric MacKinnon (South Easton, Mass.) both had 3-pointers during the run which also featured a tip-in on an offensive rebound for Jeff Bielefeld (Littleton, Mass.). Joshua Hohlfelder (Noank, Conn.) swished two free throws and a baseline jumper during the stretch for Salve Regina, which led by 12 at the halftime break (43-31).

Dinneen and Rinaldi both had 13 points at intermission. Bielefeld's jumper at 16:40 in the second half accounted for the only Seahawk points in the first nine-plus minutes of that period.

Nick DeFeo (Southington, Conn.) started the second-half scoring with a 3-pointer nine seconds into the period. Musa Elsir (Springfield, Mass.) and Zack Askew (Middletown, Conn.) added layups before another DeFeo trifecta cut the Golden Bears' deficit to two (43-41) in just over three minutes of action.

Askew's layup at 15:02 tied the game at 45-all, and both teams missed opportunities to break the deadlock for nearly three minutes. Elsir's jumper at 12:19 gave Western New England its first second-half advantage and that quickly grew to six points (51-45) with layups from Daniel Silva (Seekonk, Mass.) and Askew.

Nicholas Bates' (Danvers, Mass.) layup at 10:03 started a modest 5-2 run for Salve Regina which never got closer than three points (53-50 at 6:22) the rest of the way. Rinaldi converted a three-point play with 38 seconds left to give the Golden Bears their largest lead, eight points (62-54), before Dinneen swished a deep 3-pointer five seconds later.

Dinneen went to the line with a chance to cut the deficit to one possession with 23 ticks left, but made only his first attempt. Rinaldi countered at the other end with his team-leading 19th point. Dinneen led all scorers with 22 points and moved into 17th place on the school's all-time scoring list with 988 career points.

Bielefeld finished with 13 points and nine rebounds for Salve Regina while Elsir and DeFeo contributed 14 and 13 points, respectively, for Western New England.

Salve Regina entertains Roger Williams on Saturday during Alumni Hoopsfest 2014 on the Seahawk campus. Western New England hosts University of New England on the same day.