#3 Seed Men’s Basketball to Host Sixth-Seed Becker in NECC Tournament First Round Tuesday

QUINCY, Mass.- The third-seeded Eastern Nazarene College men's basketball team is set to face No. 6 seed Becker Tuesday evening at the Lahue Physical Education Center in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Tournament First Round.

BASICS:
Date: 2/25/20
Location: Lahue Physical Education Center | Quincy, Mass.
Time: 7:00 PM
Live Stats | Live Video

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 to Mitchell was awarded the No. 2 seed while Eastern Nazarene received the No. 3 seed. Becker posted an 11-14 record in the regular season with a 4-8 league mark to claim the No. 6 seed.

POSTSEASON HISTORY:
Eastern Nazarene is making its seventh playoff appearance in the last eight years and its second-consecutive trip to the NECC Tournament. The Lions boast an all-time postseason record of 16-15.

ENC VS. BECKER - ALL-TIME SERIES:
Eastern Nazarene and Becker have met 10 previous times on the hardwood with the first-ever meeting taking place February 1, 2000. The Lions own a 6-4 all-time record and are riding a four-game winning-streak against the Hawks entering the Tuesday's showdown. Eastern Nazarene collected wins in both regular-season matchups this year, prevailing at home 78-64 before claiming a 66-62 win on the road.

                       
LONG DISTANCE CALLING:
Josh Rice (Hanson, Mass.), Luke Dagley (Weymouth, Mass.), and Jacob Waldroop (Newland, N.C.) all rank in the top-five in the New England Collegiate Conference in three-point shooting percentage. Rice leads the league and ranks 10th in NCAA Division III with a 45.9% clip from beyond the arc while Dagley ranks second at 44.7% and Waldroop's 36.5% ranks fifth. As a team, Eastern Nazarene paces the conference with a 38.4% shooting percentage from the perimeter. The Lions have splashed 231 treys on the season.

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 1,257 career points to his credit to rank 17th in program history while Cheney has tallied 1,004 points in his four-year career.