CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Senior forward Eoin Morrissey (Watertown, Mass.) scored 10 of his 15 points in the final 35 seconds of regulation plus the five-minute overtime to put the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's basketball team in position for an 84-83 victory over host Massachusetts Institute of Technology this evening in a New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference contest at Rockwell Cage in Cambridge, Mass.
The Lyons improve to 14-7 overall and 7-5 in league play, while the Engineers drop to 5-16 and 1-11.
Wheaton trailed by four points with 47 seconds to go in regulation and faced a four-point deficit with 75 seconds to go in the overtime session, before it pulled out the road conquest.
The Lyons made just two field goals in the extra period, but the biggest make came when Morrissey's trifecta got a Wheaton bounce and went through the hoop to pull the visitors within 83-82 with 1:06 showing on the clock. MIT missed a layup on the following possession, before Morrissey's layup attempt at the other end was blocked out of bounds with 16 ticks left on the clock. Senior guard Tristan Herry (East Taunton, Mass.) was fouled coming out of the Lyons' timeout and converted both tries to give Wheaton an 84-83 edge. Herry sealed the win by forcing a held ball on the other end for the Lyons.
Wheaton shot 40.6% (26-64) for the game, while the Engineers made 42.3% (30-71) of their field goal attempts.
Morrissey pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds to post his fourth double-double of the year in addition to handing out four assists and blocking a shot for the Lyons. Junior guard Dimetri Iafrate (Johnston, R.I.) finished an assist short of recording a triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and five steals. He now has 269 career assists to move past Arnulfo DeLaCruz '00 and into sixth on the school's all-time list. Herry scored 11 points, including 6-6 from the free throw line and added four rebounds, four steals and a pair of assists. Sophomore forward Nick Scandura (Barrington, R.I.) chipped in with a career-high 12 points on 4-8 shooting in addition to a steal and a rebound.
Senior guard Rome Delgado-Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) led all players with 21 points on an efficient 6-8 from the floor, including 4-5 from three-point range, and was also 5-5 from the line. He added three rebounds and two assists for MIT. Junior guard Woods Windham (Greer, S.C.) netted 20 points on 7-12 shooting, hauled in nine rebounds, doled out two assists, came up with four steals and blocked a shot in 35 minutes off the bench. Senior forward Parker Spann (Omaha, Neb.) registered a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds to go with three assists and two steals.
Wheaton was down, 71-67, before Morrissey converted one of two free throws with 35 seconds left in the regulation to give him six points in the game and the visitors a 71-68 deficit. The Lyons sent the Engineers to the free throw line with a one-and-one free throw situation, but the first shot was missed and Wheaton got the ball back. Morrissey made the most of the opportunity, burying a three-ball with 15 seconds left in the second half to pull the Lyons even at 71-71, before the game ultimately went into overtime.
Following Morrissey's trifecta to send the contest into overtime, the Engineers led for the first two and a half minutes of overtime and held a 79-75 lead after a three-point play from Spann with 3:05 remaining in the game. Wheaton later leveled the game at 79-79 when Iafrate converted one of two free throws at the 2:08 mark of the period. Junior forward Mike Ewing (Morris Plains, N.J.) pushed MIT's lead back to four with a driving layup to make it 83-79.
The teams traded the lead three times to open the game, before Wheaton put together a 17-6 stretch, backed by five points each from senior guard Sal Pedevillano (Parsippany, N.J.) and Herry, to give the Lyons a 30-20 cushion with 9:11 left in the half. MIT scored the next six points, including four from Spann, to cut the margin to 30-26 with 6:54 to play in the half. Wheaton responded with a 9-2 burst, led by five points from Iafrate, to take its largest lead of the night at 39-28 with 2:23 to go in the first stanza. A triple from senior guard Chris Billone (Windham, N.H.) gave the Lyons a 42-33 advantage heading into the break.
Scandura made a layup nearly five minutes into the second period to give Wheaton a 47-40 lead, before Morrissey completed a three-point play with a free throw to maintain the Lyons' lead at 56-46 with 11:08 showing on the second half clock. The Engineers chipped away during a 19-8 stretch, fueled by 12 points from Delgado-Gonzalez, that gave them the lead at 65-64 with 3:46 left in regulation. The teams traded the lead before MIT reeled off six unanswered points to take a 71-67 margin.
The Lyons return to the court on Wednesday, February 11 when they travel to Worcester, Mass. to take on NEWMAC foe Clark University at 7:00 p.m., while the Engineers head to Emerson College on February 7 at 1:00 p.m.
