BOSTON, Mass. – The Lesley University men's basketball team split the season series with Wheelock College after falling to the Wildcats, on the road, 80-62, in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action, Tuesday evening. Sophomore forward Xeo Golding (Windermere, Fla.) led the Lynx netting a team-high 13 points while shooting three-of-nine from beyond the arc.
Junior guard Will Gibson (Melbourne, Fla.) shot four-of-six off the Lynx bench as he finished with 12 points in 23 minutes. Fellow junior, guard Marquise Johnson (Hampton, Va.) followed up with nine points while senior guard Devin Mayo (Newport News, Va.) was a force in the post, tallying 10 rebounds.
In the first half, the Wildcats jumped out to an 11-3 advantage behind six points from senior Anthony Williams (White Plains, N.Y.) but the Lynx responded quickly with seven consecutive points to cut their deficit to one. Wheelock answered immediately with a 7-0 spurt of their own, capped off by a Nicholas Fenton (East Hartford, Conn.) three-pointer as they continued to expand their lead.
With 7:08 remaining in the stanza, a lay-in by sophomore William Cuffee (Amherst, Mass.) cut Lesley's deficit to 27-20. From there, the Wildcats would take control of the game. First came a pair of freebies and lay-up by senior Devin Brown (Chicago, Ill.) that kicked off a run of 12 straight Wheelock points, capped by back-to-back treys from Fournier to open up a 39-20 lead. The home team would continue that surge as they closed the period on a 14-2 run and headed into the break, up 44-22.
The second half saw Wheelock fight to preserve their cushion as Lesley attempted to claw back into the game. Trailing 60-43, the Lynx mounted a comeback behind baskets from four different players as they made it a single digit game following a 9-1 surge. Still, that was as close as they would get as a Fenton lay-up followed in quick succession by treys from senior Derek Fournier (Johnston, R.I.) and senior Matthew Eason (East Hartford, Conn.) restored a sizeable 69-52 lead with 6:35 on the clock. From there, the home team would coast to their 80-62 victory.
The Wildcats were led by Fournier who scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field including five shots from beyond the arc. He also added a career-best 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Fenton also recorded a double-double with 14 points and 15 assists while Williams shared game-high honors with 19 points. Brown contributed 14 points and Eason added 11 as all five starters reached double-digit scoring.
Lesley drops to 13-8 on the season and 7-5 in conference play while Wheelock improves to 9-10 and 6-4 in the NECC. The Lynx return to the hard-court on Saturday February 4th when they travel out to Leicester, Mass. for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off against conference foe Becker College. Wheelock will be in action Thursday February 2nd when they host Daniel Webster College at 6:30 p.m.
- Portions of this recap provided by Adam Schlitt, Assistant Sports Information Director