Greer, Devine lead Griffins over D'Youville

by TOM UTESCHER

Guard Isaac Greer and forward Mike Devine of Chestnut Hill College each dropped 17 points on D'Youville College last Saturday, pacing a 63-48 win that gave the Griffins a 2-0 mark in the North East Athletic Conference and a 4-2 record overall. Greer had a game-high seven steals and grabbed six rebounds, and Devine swept eight balls off the boards for the victors.

The Griffins were fresh off of an impressive 72-68 victory at Kings College, and Greer was named the NEAC's co-Player of the Week for the second week in a row.

Fellow conference member D'Youville (0-2, 1-4), which is located in Buffalo, NY, adopted its unusual name in honor of the revered French Canadian Grey Nun, Marguerite d'Youville, who was canonized in 1990.

Devine and Greer got to work early in Saturday's scrap, combining to score the first six points of the day as the Griffins led from start to finish. CHC shooting guard Shawn Bolling soon made his mark, as well, and the Griffins moved away to a 15-6 advantage.

D'Youville's Ross King, a forward with a soft touch on shots from the paint, helped make up some ground for the Spartans, who were back within five, 21-16, with six-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first half. The visitors were already getting into foul difficulties against the quicker Chestnut Hill squad, though, and after the Griffins' Ryan Albany canned both ends of a one-and-one, Greer scored on a breakaway and Devine drained a three-pointer from the top of the key.

This gave the hosts a 28-16 advantage, then the teams traded points to set the score at 32-20 for the intermission. Devine and D'Youville's King were each down for ten points in the book, while Bolling had eight.

In the trailing half the Griffins continued to use their speed to force turnovers from the visitors, who coughed up the lump two-dozen times. Only once were the Spartans able to cut the lead back to single figures, and that was when King hit a transition lay-up and accompanying free throw to make it 40-31 five minutes into the second period.

In a 7-2 counterattack over the next two minutes the Griffs got a trey from Devine, a baseline bucket from Greer, and a successful drive by Bolling to go back up by 14, and the visitors never got so close again.

Bolling finished with ten points and Albany with eight, and each man handed out six assists while Albany pulled a game-high 11 rebounds. Rick Ferraiolo and Larry Curran had four points apiece, and a field goal by Steve Tamburo and a free throw by Kevin Emenimadu rounded it out for Chestnut Hill. D'Youville's King wound up with 17 points, but from there the Spartans' output dropped to an eight-point showing by guard Kyle Ward.