JOHNSON, Vt. (February 19, 2011) -  Johnson State picked up a 83-56 North Atlantic Conference (NAC) men's basketball victory on Saturday to complete the Badgers' regular-season schedule.  Johnson wraps their season with a 8-17 record, 4-10 NAC while Green Mountain finishes 0-20, 0-14 NAC.

Johnson needed a win and a Maine Maritime Academy loss at home to the University of Maine-Farmington to force a tie for the sixth and final playoff bid in the NAC playoffs but MMA defeated UMF 65-53 to earn the last spot and end the Badgers' season.

Green Mountain led early taking a nine-point lead at 22-13 following a jumper by freshman Felix Rojas (Ridgewood, N.Y./John F. Kennedy) with 7:45 to play in the first half.

Johnson would answer with a 25-2 run keyed by five 3-point field goals made by four different players, two by senior guard Ian Passino (Peru, N.Y./Peru), as the Badgers took a 38-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.

JSC would see the Eagles get no closer than 11 points from that point on and pick up their second consecutive win to close the season.

Senior swingman Rob Key (New Britain, Conn./New Britain) had fine outing in the final game of his collegiate career scoring a game-high 16 points on 7-10 shooting while also hauling down a game-high eight rebounds.  Passino finished with 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals while Johnson's third senior in the class, Victor Abass (Sudan/Cedar Park Christian), scored nine points.

GMC was paced by sophomore Kenneth Williams' (Fort Myers, Fla./Cape Coral) 14 points and five boards while Malik Hale (Springfield, Vt./Springfield) added 13 points.  Patrick Dunn (Schenectady, N.Y./Bishop Gibbons) chipped in with 13 points and Rojas scored 10 and added five rebounds.