SPRINGFIELD, MA- Sophomore Anthony Coppola (Watertown, MA/Watertown) buried a tie-breaking three-pointer with 29 seconds remaining, and the Wheaton College men's basketball team held on for a 67-64 victory at Springfield College during New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action in Blake Arena on Wednesday evening. Wheaton improved to 12-7 overall and remained in third place in the league standings at 4-2. The Pride slipped to 9-10 and 1-5 on the season.

The Lyons held a four-point advantage late in regulation before four Springfield free throws in a 34-second span knotted the contest at 61 with 46 seconds remaining, but Coppola came down and hit his season-high fourth trey 17 seconds later to put Wheaton in front for good. After two Pride freebies made it a 64-63 game with 10 ticks to go, junior Jaxon Leo (Leesburg, VA/New Hampton School) nailed a pair of critical free throws to reestablish the Lyons' three-point lead with nine seconds remaining, and the teams traded one freebie apiece in the waning moments before Springfield was unable to connect on a desperation three at the buzzer.

During a low-scoring first half, the teams combined for only nine points in the opening seven minutes, but Coppola later dropped in eight straight Wheaton points to put the Lyons up by five. Wheaton turned a two-point edge at 5:32 into a nine-point lead after seven straight points made it 26-17 at the 2:49 mark on freshman Brendan Degnan's (Narragansett, RI/Bishop Hendricken) three-pointer. The Lyons shot 39.3 percent in the half but took a 28-22 advantage into halftime thanks to a 25-19 rebounding edge while holding Springfield to 25 percent shooting.

After going 2-of-10 at the charity stripe in the opening stanza, Wheaton, which entered the week ranked 13th in Division III in free throw shooting, went 10-of-12 in the second half. The Lyons hit half of their field-goal tries while going 7-of-12 from three-point range, but Springfield countered by shooting 48.5 percent from the floor.

Sophomore Ryan Sasso (Peabody, MA/Bishop Fenwick) and junior Ben Stehle (Newton, MA/Newton South) hit threes 22 seconds apart early in the second half to put the Lyons up by 10 before the Pride tallied 12 straight points to go up 36-34 at 14:20. Coppola hit a three nine seconds later to put Wheaton back in front, and a Degnan three at 11:39 erased his team's one-point deficit. Two Sasso freebies made it 59-53 at 4:45, but Springfield scored eight of the next 10 points to knot the game and set up the exciting finish.

Coppola finished with 19 points, freshman Anthony Weeks (Fitchburg, MA/Worcester Academy) went 5-of-6 for 14 points off the bench, and Stehle totaled 12 points and eight rebounds. Sasso tallied seven points and five assists, while freshman Shawn Daily (Mount Vernon, NY/Mount Saint Michael Academy) snared seven rebounds in 13 minutes. Wheaton finished 11-of-20 from three.

Sophomore Matthew Cavalieri (West Warwick, RI/West Warwick) notched 16 points and nine boards off the bench to lead Springfield, junior Ryan Blackmon (Stamford, CT/Trinity Catholic) added 13 points, and senior John Strawson (Torrington, CT/Torrington) and junior Pat Crean (Sleepy Hollow, NY/Sleepy Hollow) finished with 11 apiece. Crean also grabbed eight rebounds.

The Lyons play their second straight NEWMAC contest away from home when they take on Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The Engineers are receiving votes in this week's D3hoops.com national poll.