Clark Men Sunk by MIT

By Chris Wiklund

The Clark Men’s Basketball team took their 9-7 record to the court against the 11-6 squad from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last Saturday. The Cougars kept pace with the Engineers but trailed through most of the game and fell by a final score of 87-80.

Much first half was a battle between Clark’s Peter Normandin and Pat Landers against the 6’7” foward Hamidou Soumare. The Clark forwards had their hands full with the much taller Soumare as the MIT guards utilized frequent lob passes into the low post and let Soumare convert the lay-in on his way to 16 first half points for the Engineers.

Normandin scored a team high nine points in the first half of play and pulled down two rebounds with three assists. Landers also lead the attack in the first half, scoring seven points and providing key defense against the Engineer attack in the paint. The Clark bench outscored their MIT counterparts 9-2 in the first half and keeping the game within reach and Clark’s big guns rested.

The Cougars enjoyed a slim lead early in the game after Normandin won the opening tip-off and put back a rebound for the game’s first points. Moments later he came up with a steal and dished the ball to Mark Alexander for the 4-0 lead. The two teams exchanged leads until ten minutes into the half Ochoa hit a three to put Clark on top 19-18. The lead was short lived, however, as precision shots from MIT’s Jimmy Bartolotta, who was five of six from three point range en route to a game-high 33 points, Billy Johnson, and Will Mroz put the Engineers back on top where they would stay for the rest of the half.

With the Cougars down 39-30 with just over three and a half to play in the period, MIT’s Hamidou Soumare, who had already dunked the ball earlier in the half, broke down the floor after a Clark turnover and went for his second dunk of the night. This time he failed and the ball bounced off the rim and back onto the floor—a scene which would be repeated later in the second half. The home crowd erupted in mock cheers and the Cougars seemed to take the failed attempt personally. MIT inbounded the ball and a pressing Lopiano positioned himself to take the charge and draw the foul. The play sparked a 9-4 Clark run to close out the second half and go to the dressing room with the score 43-39 in favor of the visiting team.

At the start of the second half the Engineers again stretched their lead to nine on a free throw by Soumare, but he Cougars battled back to tie the game at 56-56 with 12:30 left in the game after Normandin hit one of his two three-point buckets of the night. Things got hairy less than a minute later when Alexander broke down the court with two MIT. players giving chase. It at first appeared that Alexander was fouled, but the referees made a controversial no-call in the close game. Coach Phillips argued on behalf of Alexander and was given a technical foul. The Engineers were able to sink one of the free shots bringing the score to 56-58 in favor of MIT.

Clark kept pace with MIT in the waning moments of the game. Big shots from Ochoa, Normandin, Alexander, and Lyell kept the score to 72-77 at the two minute mark, but the Engineers were able to convert 70% of the free throws in the second half to widen the gap. Clark players hit 75% percent of their turns at the foul line but had only about half the opportunities that the Engineers had.

A scary moment silenced the court and bleachers when MIT’s Bartolotta was undercut by and fell hard onto Clark’s Lopiano. Lopiano stayed down and was helped off the court by his team mates and the training staff with 54.8 seconds left in the half and the score at 82-75 for MIT.

Clark brought the score to 80-85 with 35.8 seconds left but could not make up the difference. The game ended with the final score 80-87 MIT.