After Wheaton’s Sean Kelly (Providence, RI) nailed one of two free throws to knot the game at 75, WPI’s Ryan Cain (Webster, MA) missed an 18-foot jumper, Coleman missed a tip, corralled his own rebound and put if off the glass and in while drawing a foul. He extended the lead to three with the subsequent free throw. After a Wheaton turnover, Ryan Flynn (Hamilton, MA) and Cain each netted a pair of throws sandwiched around a Wheaton jumper to ice the game.
WPI used to 17-2 run midway through the first half to open up a seemingly insurmountable 17 point advantage. Wheaton scored the final seven points of the half to whittle the deficit to seven, 47-40, at the intermission. The Lyons continued to inch back, taking their only lead of the game at 74-73 on an Eric Johnston (South Windsor, CT) jumper with 1:56 remaining.
Cain paced WPI with 21 points while Coleman added 15 and shared game-high rebounding honors with eight. Brian Steele (Whitinsville, MA) and Flynn helped the Engineers enjoy a 35-5 advantage in bench scoring by netting 12 and 10 points respectively.
Brian Zukowski (Dracut, MA) led all scorers with 22 points and added eight boards for the Lyons. Brent DiGiovanna (Hanover, MA) tallied 17 points before fouling out while Johnston registered 14 points and Kelly added 11 points to go along with five steals and four assists.
With its fifth straight victory, WPI, ranked 14th in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, improves to 15-1 on the season. Wheaton dips to 11-6 overall and 2-3 in NEWMAC action.
Both teams will return to action on Tuesday with road contests. WPI will venture across Worcester to meet Clark while Wheaton will travel to Cambridge to face MIT.
Newspaper Box Score Wheaton vs WPI 1/21/06 2:00pm at Worcester, MA At Worcester, MA WPI 82, WHEATON 77 WHEATON (11-6, 2-3) Brian Zukowski 8-12 5-6 22; Brent DiGiovanna 8-14 1-2 17; Eric Johnston 4-9 6-6 14; Sean Kelly 4-7 2-3 11; James Greenslit 2-5 2-2 8; Kristopher Pedra 1-3 0-0 3; David Harding 1-5 0-0 2; Jake Otto 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-57 16-19 77. WPI (15-1, 5-1) Ryan Cain 6-15 5-5 21; Antoine Coleman 5-14 4-6 15; Brian Steele 4-6 3-4 12; Ryan Flynn 3-7 3-5 10; Ryan Bourque 3-4 1-2 7; Mike Prestileo 2-2 0-0 6; James Marois 2-6 0-2 5; Sean Ivey 2-3 0-0 4; Brett Dickson 1-3 0-0 2; Steve Furber 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-60 16-24 82. Wheaton....................... 40 37 - 77 WPI........................... 47 35 - 82 3-point goals-Wheaton 5-12 (James Greenslit 2-3; Sean Kelly 1-2; Kristopher Pedra 1-1; Brian Zukowski 1-3; David Harding 0-1; Eric Johnston 0-2), WPI 10-20 (Ryan Cain 4-8; Mike Prestileo 2-2; Ryan Flynn 1-3; Brian Steele 1-2; Antoine Coleman 1-3; James Marois 1-2). Fouled out--Wheaton-Brent DiGiovanna, WPI-None. Rebounds-Wheaton 31 (Brian Zukowski 8), WPI 38 (Antoine Coleman 8). Assists-Wheaton 10 (Sean Kelly 4), WPI 18 (Ryan Flynn 6). Total fouls-Wheaton 19, WPI 22. A-500