Men's Basketball (13-9, 5-4) Splits for Third Straight Week, Remains Third in NEWMAC

The Wheaton College men's basketball team went 1-1 during New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action for the third straight week last week, downing the visiting United States Coast Guard Academy, 68-58 on Wednesday before losing a heartbreaker at Babson College, 69-67 in overtime on Saturday. The Lyons, who stand third in the seven-team league's standings, have three conference contests remaining. By finishing among the top four, they would host their first postseason tournament game since 2006.

Against Coast Guard, the two-time defending NEWMAC Tournament champion, the Lyons used a late 13-0 run to overcome a nine-point second-half deficit. Sophomore Anthony Coppola's (Watertown, MA/Watertown) bucket with 4:47 remaining gave the Lyons the lead for good, as he finished with 15 points and five rebounds. Junior Jaxon Leo (Leesburg, VA/New Hampton School) totaled a game-high 18 points behind 6-of-6 free-throw shooting to go along with five rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Sophomore Ryan Sasso (Peabody, MA/Bishop Fenwick) turned in 13 points and four helpers, while junior Ben Stehle (Newton, MA/Newton South) snared seven boards. The win gave Wheaton a regular season sweep of the Bears for the first time since 2003-04.

Freshman Anthony Weeks (Fitchburg, MA/Worcester Academy) hit game-tying three-pointers in the waning seconds of both the second half and overtime before Babson scored its game-winning points with 2.5 seconds to play in the contest. Wheaton trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half before Weeks buried a long three with nine seconds remaining in the period to force an extra session. There, Weeks' trey with 26 ticks to go knotted the game after the Beavers had led by five, but the hosts hit two free throws on the next possession. Weeks finished with a season-high-tying 18 points and a season-best five steals, Coppola turned in 13 points off the bench, and Sasso totaled 12 points and six assists. Leo shot 5-of-7 for 12 points.

Leo and senior Nick Michel (Hyde Park, MA/Boston Latin School) are tied for eighth in program history in career blocks (49). Coppola has 912 points in his 47-game career, as he sits one point shy of Brent DiGiovanna '08 for 15th on Wheaton's all-time list. Coppola is eighth in program history in three-pointers (120), just two shy of Jarrett Lewis '03. With 412 points this year, Coppola is the sixth Lyon with at least two 400-point seasons. He joins Chris Sullivan '93, the program's all-time leading scorer, as just the second to accomplish the feat by his sophomore year.