JOHNSON, Vt. – Johnson State slid behind visiting New England College by as many as 15 points in the second half and saw a late rally fall short as the Badgers dropped a crucial North Atlantic Conference (NAC) home game 67-61 on Thursday night in Carter Gym.  JSC falls to 4-13, 4-7 NAC while the Pilgrims improve to 5-12, 4-6 NAC.

Johnson was paced by junior guard Andy Bousono (Philadelphia, Penn./Nueva Esperanza) and his 13 points while senior Alen Turan (Essex, Vt./Essex) (pictured) and sophomore Bryan Hickey (Barre, Vt./Spaulding) each tallied 11 points.

New England College received a game-high 17 points from Abdi Mohamed (Biddeford, Maine/Biddeford), Steve Cronin (New Milford, Conn./New Milford) had a 15-point effort, Jonathan Byrnes (Bethel, Conn./Bethel) went for 12 points and eight rebounds, and Eric Eklund (West Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) came off the bench to provide 11 points and nine rebounds.

The Pilgrims defense and energy on the offensive glass helped key a 25-22 halftime lead as they took the ball away 12 times from Johnson and also earned 10 offensive rebounds en route to 12 more first half shot attempts than the Badgers.

A 16-5 surge out of the halftime pushed the lead to 41-27 and was keyed by five points from Mohamed and four from Cronin.  The margin would hover around 10 for much of the second stanza but a frenetic JSC effort cut the lead to four with :10 left but it was not to be for Badgers on this night.

Johnson moves on to play at Colby-Sawyer College on Saturday at 3:00 pm while New England College will host Lyndon State College, also on Saturday at 3:00 pm.