SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The rematch of the 2025 Conference of New England (CNE) Championship was an edge-of-your-seat thriller Saturday afternoon at the Alumni Healthful Living Center as Suffolk men's basketball trailed by as many as 21 before it mounted a second half comeback that fell short to Western New England, 62-59.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 59 | Western New England 62
RECORDS: Suffolk (11-9, 6-3 CNE) | Western New England 13-5, 7-2 CNE) 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Greg Keane banked in the first hoop of the day, a lay-up, before the Golden Bears scored 17 straight to put the blue-and-gold in a 17-2 hole with 5:24 removed from the first half. 
• WNE managed to maintain its double figure distance and stretch it to as many as 21 with 1:29 left on the clock in the opening half. 
• Harrison Neil put away four points on a freebie and one triple to send Suffolk into the break down 34-17. 
• The host hit the first bucket of the second stanza and the Rams responded with nine consecutive points to cut the deficit down to 10, 36-26, with 16:36 on the clock. That rally was fueled by four points by James Jones, a triple by Connor Strickland and a lay-in from Keane. 
• WNE lengthened its advantage back 14, 42-28, before another Rams rallied around a 7-3 run to get the distance to single digits, 45-37, with 12:00 to go. 
• Suffolk found itself trailing by 10 once again, 49-39, less than two minutes later, but the Rams continued to battle back. 
• This time an 8-2 Rams spurt made it a four-point game, 51-47, and Jeff Juron took a timeout with 7:29 remaining. Strickland was responsible for half of those points in the run.  
• Back-and-forth play came out of the huddle before back-to-back hoops by Nick Verdile leveled the playing field at 53 at the 3:30 mark. 
• The lead flip flopped four times from there and landed in WNE's favor, 58-56, when Matt Houde swished a trey with 1:40 to play. 
• The score remained there until the 18-second mark when the Golden Bears' Houde put away two free throws to stretch the host edge to four, 60-56. 
• Verdile managed to waste little time to knock down a hoop behind-the-arc to make it a one-point game with seven seconds to go. 
• Time was against the Rams, and they fouled Houde again. That trip to the charity stripe turned into two more points for WNE and Suffolk faced a 62-59 margin with six seconds left. 
• Verdile had a hail mary in the final second, but it was off the mark, which allowed the Golden Bears to take the decision.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Jones registered 19 points behind a 66.7 conversion rate (8-12) from the floor to go along with nine rebounds. 
• Strickland supplied 11 points with five boards, five helpers and one steal. 
• Verdile added 10 points, five caroms, three dimes and one steal. 
• Declan Davis pitched in nine points off the bench behind a 4-for-6 effort from the floor and one takeaway.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Strickland had a career-high five assists. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk is set to host Hartford Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at Smith Court.