#3 Seed Men’s Basketball Heads to Second-Seeded Mitchell for NECC Tournament Semifinal Showdown Thursday

QUINCY, Mass.- The third-seeded Eastern Nazarene College men's basketball team travels to No. 2 seed Mitchell Thursday evening in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Tournament semifinals.

BASICS:
Date: 2/27/20
Location: Yarnall Athletic Center | New London, Conn.
Time: 7:00 PM
Live Stats

HOW THEY GOT HERE:
Eastern Nazarene finished the regular season with a 13-12 overall record to go with an 8-4 mark in the New England Collegiate Conference. The Lions finished in a tie for second-place in the league standings with Mitchell, but after a series of tiebreakers Mitchell was awarded the No. 2 seed while Eastern Nazarene received the No. 3 seed. Eastern Nazarene edged sixth-seeded Becker 74-70 in the NECC Tournament first round to reach the NECC Tournament semifinals for the second year in a row. The Mariners posted an 11-14 record during the regular season to go with an 8-4 league mark.

POSTSEASON HISTORY:
Eastern Nazarene is making its seventh playoff appearance in the last eight years and its second-consecutive trip to the NECC Tournament semifinals. The Lions boast an all-time postseason record of 17-15.

ENC VS. MITCHELL - ALL-TIME SERIES:
Eastern Nazarene and Mitchell have met 10 previous times on the hardwood with the first-ever meeting taking place December 5, 2006. The Lions own a 6-4 all-time record against the Mariners entering Thursday's clash. During the regular season, Eastern Nazarene collected an 84-75 victory at home before falling 73-58 on the road in the final regular-season tilt.

                       
LONG DISTANCE CALLING:
Josh Rice (Hanson, Mass.), Luke Dagley (Weymouth, Mass.), Garrett Crandell (Bristol, Tenn.), Jacob Waldroop (Newland, N.C.), and Noah Cheney (Bend, Ore.) all rank in the top-10 in the New England Collegiate Conference in three-point shooting percentage. Rice leads the league and ranks 10th in NCAA Division III with a 46.6% clip from beyond the arc while Dagley ranks second at 43.6%. Crandell, Waldroop, and Cheney rank fifth, sixth, and seventh, respectively in the conference. As a team, Eastern Nazarene paces the conference with a 38.2% shooting percentage from the perimeter. The Lions have splashed 239 treys on the season.

ALL-CONFERENCE ACCOLADES:
Eastern Nazarene garnered a pair of All-New England Collegiate Conference selections this season. Senior Garrett Crandell (Bristol, Tenn.) picked up his second-straight All-NECC nod, earning first team honors this year after collecting second team accolades a year ago. Senior Noah Cheney (Bend, Ore.) was tabbed to the All-NECC second team. Graduate student Andrew Mitchell (Campobello, S.C.) was named to the NECC Del Malloy Sportsmanship Team.

1,000-POINT SCORER'S CLUB:
Eastern Nazarene seniors Josh Rice (Hanson, Mass.) and Noah Cheney (Bend, Ore.) became the 33rd and 34th players in program history, respectively, to net their 1,000th career points this year. Rice reached the 1,000-point mark November 22, 2019 in Eastern Nazarene's loss to WPI as he joined his father Jon ('90) as the first father-son duo in program history to score 1,000 career points. Cheney eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau February 19, 2020 as the Lions fell at regionally-ranked New England College. Rice has 1,272 career points to his credit to rank 17th in program history while Cheney has tallied 1,023 points in his four-year career.