WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's basketball team was unable to survive a big second half run by host No. 12 Worcester Polytechnic Institute and suffered a 78-68 defeat this afternoon in New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference play at Harrington Auditorium in Worcester, Mass. 

The Lyons fall to 8-8 overall and 3-3 in league play, while the Engineers, who are ranked in the most recent D3hoops.com national poll, improve to 14-2 and a perfect 6-0.

Both teams shot the ball relatively well with WPI owning a 46.7% (28-60) clip from the field, including 45% (9-20) from three-point range and Wheaton shooting 46.4% (26-56) from the floor. The Engineers held a healthy 38-29 rebounding advantage that led to a 12-2 disparity in second chance points.

Senior forward Aaron Williams (Springfield, Mass.) led all scorers with 24 points on 9-17 shooting for the Lyons and added nine rebounds and an assist. Senior guard Alex Carlisle (Saint Johnsbury, Vt.) scored 15 points to go with four rebounds, five assists and a blocked shot, while classmate Evan Cook (Dunstable, Mass.) contributed with 14 points on 6-8 from the field in addition to five assists.

Sophomore guard Aidan Callahan (Rowley, Mass.) netted 20 points to lead WPI in addition to five assists, a pair of steals and a rebound, while senior forward John Lowther (Hingham, Mass.) made his presence known, scoring 17 points, grabbing seven rebounds, handing out five assists, coming up with four steals and blocking a shot. Junior guard Donovan Sevilla (San Ramon, Calif.) chipped in with 14 points, an assist and a steal and classmate John Adams (Douglas, Mass.) posted his fourth double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds to go with three assists and a steal.

Carlisle buried a jumper with 12:11 left in the second half to give Wheaton a 54-47 lead, but WPI held its guests to just two points over the next four minutes, while scoring 17 points, including nine from Lowther, to take a 64-56 lead with 8:02 remaining in the game. The Lyons were unable to recover from the sudden surge of offense from the Engineers, who later owned a 70-60 advantage for their largest lead of the afternoon with 3:17 showing in the half. 

Williams scored four straight points to pull Wheaton to within 70-64 with 1:41 to go in the game, but it was as close as the Lyons would get.

Wheaton opened the game with a 13-4 run over the first four and a half minutes, paced by five points each from Carlisle and Williams. Cook converted a layup to give the Lyons a 29-21 margin at the 4:33 mark of the first half.

WPI closed the stanza with an 11-4 stretch, fueled by seven points from Sevilla, to cut the deficit to one at 33-32 before the intermission.

The Lyons wasted no time to reclaim the momentum to start the second half. Williams canned a three-ball and then put down a dunk to give the visitors a 38-32 lead with 46 seconds gone in the half. 

The Engineers collected themselves and scored six straight points to knot the contest at 38-38 with 17:19 showing. The game remained tied at 42-42, before a 10-3 run capped by a Carlisle jumper gave Wheaton a 52-45 advantage with 12:52 left in the game.

The Lyons return to action on Wednesday, January 25 when they host league opponent Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Emerson Gymnasium for a 6:00 p.m. tip-off, while WPI hosts United States Coast Guard Academy on the same night at 7:00 p.m.