Men's Basketball (12-8, 4-3) Goes 1-1 in League Play, Remains Third in NEWMAC

The Wheaton College men's basketball team went 1-1 on the road during New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action last week, defeating Springfield College, 67-64 on Wednesday before falling at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 85-60 on Saturday against a team receiving votes in the D3hoops.com national poll. With five games left in their conference slate, the Lyons stand third in the seven-team league's standings.

At Springfield, sophomore Anthony Coppola (Watertown, MA/Watertown) buried a tie-breaking three-pointer with 29 seconds remaining, and junior Jaxon Leo (Leesburg, VA/New Hampton School) hit a pair of free throws with nine ticks left to keep the Lyons up by three. Wheaton was buoyed by a 7-of-12 showing from three-point range in the second half while also going 10-of-12 on free-throw tries in the stanza. Coppola finished with 19 points on 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, freshman Anthony Weeks (Fitchburg, MA/Worcester Academy) shot 5-of-6 for 14 points off the bench, and junior Ben Stehle (Newton, MA/Newton South) totaled 12 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Ryan Sasso (Peabody, MA/Bishop Fenwick) added seven points and five assists, while freshman Shawn Daily (Mount Vernon, NY/Mount Saint Michael Academy) snagged seven boards in 13 minutes.

Despite outscoring MIT in the second half, the Lyons fell to the host Engineers. Wheaton shot 60.9 percent in the second half, including 4-of-8 from three-point range. Coppola scored 13 of his 19 points in the opening half, while Sasso was 3-of-4 from deep in finishing with 12 points. Freshman reserve Bruno Naylor (Los Angeles, CA/Northfield Mount Hermon School) shot 4-of-6 for eight points, while senior Mark Sullivan (West Roxbury, MA/Catholic Memorial) and freshman Brendan Degnan (Narragansett, RI/Bishop Hendricken) both tallied four assists off the bench.

Senior Nick Michel (Hyde Park, MA/Boston Latin School) remains eighth in program history in career blocks (49), while Leo is tied for 10th (46). Coppola has 884 points in his 45-game career, as he sits 16th on Wheaton's all-time list. He is eighth in program history in three-pointers (118).