NEW LONDON, N.H. – A late Johnson rally came up short on Tuesday night, Feb. 21, 2012, as the Badgers saw their season end with a 75-69 North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Quarterfinal loss at Colby-Sawyer College. JSC finishes their season with a 6-20 overall record while the Chargers improve to 19-7 and advanced to the NAC Semifinals Friday night, Feb. 24, 2012, facing the University of Maine-Farmington in a game that will be played at Castleton State College.
Johnson was led by junior point guard Andy Bousono (Philadelphia, Penn./Nueva Esperanza) and his game-high 25 points, having gone 3-for-4 in 3-point shooting. Sophomore guard Scott Moran (Amity, Conn./Orange) provided 16 points and sophomore center Billy Boyd (Walden, Vt./Hazen) went 5-for-6 from the field en route to an 11-point, seven-rebound night. Sophomore forward Bryan Hickey (Barre, Vt./Spaulding) chipped in with eight points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Colby-Sawyer received 19 points from senior guard Will Bardaglio as he connected on 4-of-7 3-point field goals. Both senior forward James Tobin and freshman forward Mike Dias added 15 points each and junior point guard Corey Willis cashed in 10 points.
Colby-Sawyer jumped out to an early six point lead at 10-4 following a 3-pointer from Paul Holland with 15:41 left in the first half but Johnson would respond with a 10-5 run to cut the lead to one with 11:32 remaining in the stanza.
Trailing by six points with 4:24 left in the first, the Chargers made perhaps the decisive run of the game closing the half with a 13-5 surge that included three 3-point field goals from Bardaglio to take a 44-30 lead.
Johnson would stay within striking distance over the first eight minutes of the second half, but the Charger lead would creep ahead to 19 points at 62-43 with 9:07 left in the game.
The Badgers would not go quitely as they would close to gap to 11 at one point, but saw lead stand at 15 with 2:39 to go following a Dias jumper.
JSC’s Bousono and Moran combined for seven points in an 11-2 run that covered just 1:20 to make it 71-65 CSC. The Badgers had the ball, but could not covert on an open eight-footer that would cut the lead to four with :40 left. The Chargers would connect on enough free throws from there to hang on for the 75-69 win.
Johnson will lose three seniors to graduation: forwards Alen Turan (Essex, Vt./Essex) and Brian Phelps (Milton, Vt./Milton) and guard Timmy Respass (Philadelphia, Penn./Bucks County CC). There is reason for optimism for the Badgers going into the off-season as the top six scorers and rebounders are slated to return.
