SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Senior guard Jon Godbout (Bristol, CT) had a season high 27 points and sophomore guard Ryan Hernandez (Hampton Bays, NY) added 12 points, including four free throws in the final 14.6 seconds, as Western New England College rallied for a 71-66 overtime victory over visiting Johnson & Wales Saturday afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball game.

The Golden Bears (4-7, 2-2 GNAC) trailed by nine (61-52) with 4:51 left in the game, but bounced back to send the contest into sn extra session when Godbout made a layup with nine seconds remaining. The Wildcats had two field goal attempts in the final seconds, but couldn’t score.

Western New England College led 36-34 at half-time before JWU used a 9-0 run to take a 45-39 lead on a lay-up by senior forward Conor Moran (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) (11 points) with 16:33 left in regulation. The Golden Bears went ahead 50-48 when  freshman guard Matt Maynard (Paterson, NJ) hit a jumper at the 8:10 mark before the Wildcats went on a 13-2 run for the nine-point advantage.

Senior guard Brian Bannister (Boston, MA) led Johnson & Wales with 22 points while freshman guard Justin Adams (Providence, RI) added 14 points off the bench.

Western New England College had a 53-33 advantage off the boards led by junior center Deon Thomas (Albany, NY) who pulled down a career high 14 rebounds. He also scored on a twisting layup that gave the Golden Bears the lead for good at 67-65 with 1:23 left in overtime.

Freshman forward Kyle Fredette (Wallingford, VT) also played a key role in the win by scoring nine points and grabbing nine rebounds. He also blocked a shot by Bannister with two seconds remaining that helped send the game into overtime.

Western New England College improves its record to 4-7 overall and 2-2 in the GNAC while Johnson & Wales falls to 4-9 and 2-4 in the conference.

Items of Interest: Godbout moved into 10th place on the all-time WNEC scoring list with 1,192 points (passing Tom Keane who had 1,171 points from 1996-2000)... Both teams struggled at the foul line with Western New England College converting only 15-of-32 attempts (46.9%) and JWU 16-of-26 (61.5%)... In the last meeting between the teams, Johnson & Wales defeated Western New England College 57-52 in a quarterfinal round game of the 2005 GNAC Tournament at the Alumni Healthful Living Center.