With the win, WPI raises its record to 13-1 overall, 3-1 in the NEWMAC. The Engineers have won three straight. Springfield, meanwhile, falls to 4-11 overall, 0-3 in the conference.
Cain, a 6-1 junior guard from Webster, Mass. and St. John’s High School of Worcester, scored 10 of his 19 points in the first half. Flynn, a 6-0 senior guard from Hamilton, Mass. and Hamilton-Wenham High School, scored 14 of his 18 in that same stanza as WPI built a 34-24 halftime advantage. The next high scorers for WPI were 6-4 sophomore guard/forward James Marois (Worcester, Mass./Doherty HS) with 8 points, and 6-3 sophomore forward Antoine Coleman (Everett, Mass./Everett HS) with 7 points. He also added 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Springfield was led by Derek Yvon, a 6-3 senior guard from East Longmeadow, Mass. and Cathedral High, with 30 points. Yvon scored 26 of his 30 in the second half. Yvon made 8-of-his 18 shots from the field and added 4 steals. Derek fell just one point shy of his season-high with his 30 points. He has now scored 1,839 career points, which places him 2nd in Springfield College annals. He needs 164 more points to tie Hassan Robinson’s ’95 mark of 2,003. Yvon’s point per game average moved up to 22.3 following today’s game.
Other double-figure scorers for SC included 5-10 sophomore guard Jamaal Gibbs (Norwalk, Conn./Brien McMahon HS) with 11 points (and 8 rebounds), and 6-8 freshman center Zachary Mitzan (Wilmington, Mass./Notre Dame Prep) with a career-high 10 points (with a game-high and career-high 9 rebounds).
Springfield outrebounded WPI, 37-33. But WPI was at least a shade better in most other categories. WPI shot .431 from the field (22-of-51), while SC shot .411 (23-of-56). A major difference was in 3-point shooting. WPI shot .556 (10-of-18) from beyond the arc, while SC shot .250 (4-of-16). In fact, it was WPI’s three-point shooting in the second half (6-of-9) that was vital.
Trailing 9-6 early, Springfield scored the next 6 points to take a 12-9 lead, its largest lead of the game, with 10:34 left in the first half on a Mitzan lay-up. But WPI outscored the Pride, 25-12, the rest of the half, punctuated by a Flynn 3-pointer at the buzzer.
SC had the better of it in the first 11 minutes of the second half as Yvon began heating up. When 5-8 junior guard Anthony Pizzo (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa HS) made two free throws with 8:46 remaining, WPI led by just 2 points at 46-44.
But in the next one minute 16 seconds, three different WPI players made threes, with the only answer a single free throw by Yvon. The quick 9-1 onslaught began when Marois knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner, putting WPI up 49-44 with 8:28 left. Moments later, Cain, the reigning NEWMAC Player of the Year, hit a 3-pointer off a Coleman assist. When Coleman followed with a 3-pointer off a Flynn assist with 7:30 left, WPI led 55-45.
WPI would twice lead by as many as 11 points following that explosion, the last at 68-57 with 1:48 to go. Gibbs and Yvon hit 3-pointers subsequent to that to cut it to 6 (69-63) with 36 seconds left. But WPI kept SC at bay with free throws down the stretch. Cain was 7-for-7 and Flynn 6-for-6 in that category for the game.