Men's Basketball (14-12, 6-6) Falls to Babson in First Round of NEWMAC Tournament

The Wheaton College men's basketball team, which drew the third seed in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament, fell to visiting sixth seed Babson College, 72-65 in the first round Wednesday. The Lyons hosted their first postseason contest since 2006.

Wheaton, which had won the first 11 postseason home games in program history, went back and forth with the Beavers all contest, as the teams played through eight ties and 10 lead changes. The Lyons led by as many as four points, but Babson went ahead for good with 8:23 remaining. Junior Ben Stehle (Newton, MA/Newton South) led the way with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, sophomore Anthony Coppola (Watertown, MA/Watertown) had 11 points, while classmate Ryan Sasso (Peabody, MA/Bishop Fenwick) added nine points. Senior Nick Michel (Hyde Park, MA/Boston Latin School) had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, and classmate Mark Sullivan (West Roxbury, MA/Catholic Memorial) tallied nine points, as each was competing in his final collegiate game.

Michel is seventh in program history in career blocks (51), while junior Jaxon Leo (Leesburg, VA/New Hampton School) enters his senior year tied for eighth (50). Coppola has 983 points in his 51-game career, as he fell just shy of becoming the first Wheaton sophomore to reach 1,000. Coppola is seventh in program history in three-pointers (126). With 483 points this year, Coppola is the sixth Lyon with at least two 400-point seasons and posted the 10th-highest single-season total in program history. Coppola joins Chris Sullivan '93, the program's all-time leading scorer, as just the second to record his second 400-point campaign as a sophomore.