Battaglia scores 25 in the loss

BOSTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College men's basketball team dropped an 80-65 decision to Emmanuel College on Tuesday night in non-conference action at the Jean Yawkey Center.

Wheaton junior guard Billy Battaglia (Simsbury, Conn./Taft School) paced all scorers with 25 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor, 4-for-7 from long distance, a career-high 11 makes at the free throw line (11-for-11), five rebounds and one assist. First-year forward Liam Bruno (Newton, Mass./Newton North) added a career-high ten points, while classmate Ryan Fogarty (Walpole, Mass./Walpole) equaled his career-high in points with nine alongside four rebounds and one assist. Senior forward and co-captain Mike Cannon (New York, N.Y./Hyde School) contributed two points and a team-high nine boards.

Emmanuel sophomore guard Kyle Smith (Los Angeles, Calif./Venice) tallied 22 points, four assists, two steals and one rebound to guide the Saints offensively. Classmate Julian Diggs (Upper Marlboro, Md./Lee Academy) and first-year guard Josh Bushman (Hurst, Texas/L.D. Bell) added ten points apiece, while junior forward John Clay (Westport, Mass./Westport) turned in eight points and eight rebounds and junior center Kyle Davis (Groveland, Mass./Haverhill) collected eight points and hauled in nine boards.

The Saints jumped out to an early 17-13 lead before the first break in action as the hosts used six different scorers in the run. Diggs highlighted the group with four points, while Smith, senior guard Jordan DeMario (Aliso Viejo, Calif./JSerra) and sophomore forward/center Matt Raine (Miami, Fla./Westminster Christian) all canned one three-pointer each during the spurt.

Wheaton then took a 30-second timeout to regroup and halt Emmanuel's run. The Lyons did exactly that when they broke their huddle responding with back-to-back treys from Capstick and Battaglia to take a 19-17 advantage. DeMario followed with a fast break layup for the Saints at the 8:40 mark to level the score and the hosts never trailed again closing out the half on a 14-8 run.

Clay spearheaded the charge with six points, Davis added four and Bushman and sophomore forward Aidan Hadley (Owls Head, Maine/The Bullis School) registered two points each to aid the offense.

The Lyons did bring the score within one possession at two separate points during Emmanuel's 14-8 run as sophomore forward Zach Parsons (Belchertown, Mass./Belchertown) converted an old-fashioned three-point play at 6:19 to make it a 23-22 deficit and Battaglia buried a layup at 4:48 for a 27-24 gap on the scoreboard. Davis answered with consecutive layups to bring Emmanuel's advantage back to 31-24 with 3:16 left to play in the stanza and Clay notched his final points during the spurt with a layup at 2:19.

In the second half, senior guard Mike O'Loughlin (Milford, N.H./Milford) brought Wheaton back within four points (35-31) at the 17:19 mark of the stanza but the Saints pushed back with a 29-7 run culminating in their largest lead of the contest of 26 points (64-38) with 8:10 remaining to play.

Smith keyed the run with three treys and Bushman chipped in with six points to spark the offense. During the 29-7 run, Emmanuel received points from seven different scorers and ten total over the course of the entire matchup tonight. The Saints finished the game shooting 43.1-percent (28-for-65) from the floor, 71.4-percent (9-for-21) from beyond the arc, posted a slight edge on the boards at 39-37 and a 29-7 differential in points off turnovers.

Wheaton (2-3) hosts Fitchburg State University on Thursday, December 4 at 7 p.m. Emmanuel (2-3) travels to Rivier University on Tuesday, December 2 for a league game at 7:30 p.m.

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