THE BASICS
Score: New England College 92, Dean College 79
Records: New England College (20-6), Dean College (12-15)
Location: Bridges Gymnasium, Henniker, N.H.
Date: Thursday, February 27, 2020
Time: 8:00 PM

THE LEAD:
Larry McKinney came off the bench and finished with a 23-point, 12-rebound double-double to lead top-seeded New England College to a 92-79 win over fourth-seeded Dean College in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's basketball semifinal action on Thursday evening.

NEC's victory overshadowed an incredibly gutsy performance from Jordan Booker (Waterbury, Conn.) who ended his three seasons at Dean with a game-high 40 points.

The Pilgrims will host the tournament's third seed, Mitchell College on Saturday afternoon for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while the Bulldogs sees their season come to an end at 12-15.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
Trailing 48-41 at the half, Dean took a 52-50 lead early in the second half as the Jordan Lynch-Rexroth (Harrisburg, Pa.) and Booker kickstarted the 11-2 spurt.

The Pilgrims roared back going on a 15-2 run of their own with McKinney playing a significant role, scoring nine points during the outburst.

NEC's lead ballooned to 13 at 67-54 but Booker and Lynch-Rexroth trimmed the lead down to seven and when Booker drilled another three-pointer, the score was suddenly 76-72 with a little less than six minutes to go.

The game was 80-76 at the 2:55 mark but as they did all night, the Pilgrims had an answer, this time hoops from Calvin Cheek, Izaiah Winston-Brooks and McKinney put the game away.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
Neither team shot the ball well from behind the arc, going a combined 17-for-58, but NEC used 13 offensive rebounds to get 15 second chance points.

In addition to McKinney, Winston-Brooks finished with 18 points and Cheek added 23.

Lynch-Rexroth ended with 19 points and six rebounds for Dean.

Booker ends his Bulldogs career with a school record 1,768 points in just 79 career games.