JOHNSON, Vt. – Johnson State College men's basketball placed six players in double-figures on Thursday night to help fuel a 97-85 victory over visiting New England College in Carter Gymnasium.  The game was the North Atlantic Conference opener for each team as Johnson evens their overall record at 3-3 and are 1-0 in the NAC while NEC dips to 0-5, 0-1 NAC.

Senior point guard Andy Bousono (Philadelphia, Penn./Nueva Esperanza) (pictured) scored a career-high 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting and 4-of-6 from 3-point land to go with five assists and five rebounds.  Sophomore guard Asim Khan (Torrance, Calif./Torrance) added 16 points, eight rebounds, and three steals and freshman wing Austin Robinson (Burlington, Vt./Burlington) had 15 points, six boards, and five assists.  Junior forward Bryan Hickey (Barre, Vt./Spaulding) scored 13 points and had eight boards and senior forward Cody Camisa (Colchester, Vt./Colchester) just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds.  Sophomore guard Ron Adrian (Schenectady, N.Y./Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons) tossed in 10 points of the Johnson bench to provide a big lift on the night.

NEC was led by Joel DeMadet (Brooklyn, N.Y.) who supplied 20 points and eight rebounds off the bench.  Sophomore guard Ryan Schmitz (Redding, Calif.) scored 16 points and freshman forward Jaskin Melendez (Bronx, N.Y./Mount St. Joseph) added 12 points.

Johnson came roaring out of the gates scoring the game's first 10 points behind 3-pointers from Bousono and Hickey and then lay ups by Camisa and Robinson.  JSC would push the lead to 14 early following another Robinson score at 18-4 but NEC would find some rhythm and score the next five points getting the lead back to nine.

Both teams displayed powerful offenses and defenses that struggled to string together stops as Bousono would score 15 points and NEC's DeMadet would net 10 of his.  The NEC bench was vital over the first 20 minutes outscoring the JSC bench 34-14.

The Pilgrims would cut the lead to five at 50-45 just :57 seconds into the second half but Johnson would answer with a 10-0 surge pushing the lead back out to 15.

NEC was not done as a personal 7-0 run by Schmitz closed the Johnson lead to four-points, the closest the game had been since the second basket of the contest, with 10:08 on the clock.  A Bousono 3-pointer and back-to-back layups from Camisa kept the Pilgrims at bay pushing the lead back to 11 and Johnson would keep at least and eight-point margin the rest of the way.

Johnson will now travel to Colby-Sawyer College on Saturday for a 3:00 pm tip while NEC will return home for a 3:00 pm contest against visiting Lyndon State College.