CHESTNUT HILL, MA -- Lesley led the Wildcats at halftime and into the waning minutes of Thursday night's men's basketball game but couldn't lock up its second NECC victory in a 56-53 loss at Wheelock.
Lesley fell to 1-8 in New England Collegiate Conference play and 4-15 overall, while Wheelock improved to 5-4 in the NECC and 9-10 on the season.
Senior center Jesus Trejo led the Lynx with a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds, and John Sanchez added 16 points on 6-10 shooting.
The teams exchanged early leads before Wheelock mounted two seven-point leads midway through the first half. Eric Rice, who led the Wildcats with 14 points, hit a jumper that put his team up 22-15 with 8:46 left in the first. Lesley then embarked on a 7-0 run spanning 2:01, capped by a Sanchez three-point play that tied the game at 22-22.
A Daniel Main layup gave Wheelock a 26-24 lead inside the 2:00 mark, but Bryant Itonyo answered with a three-pointer just over a minute later that send Lesley into intermission with a 27-26 lead.
Trejo earned exactly half of his double-double in the first, going into halftime with a team-highs of six points and six rebounds as Lesley held a 21-14 rebounding advantage for the half. Rice led all players with eight first-half points.
Freshman Christian Fuentes' layup out of the break increased Lesley's lead to 29-26, but in what would be a nip-and-tuck second half, neither team led by more than three points until the final seconds. A Trejo lay-in agin put Lesley ahead by three, 49-46 with 7:14 to play, but it was the Lynx last field goal for the next 6:56. Wheelock scored eight straight points in that span in taking a five-point lead into the final 18 seconds, where Wildcats point guard Kyle Pierce nailed four straight free throws to ice its 56-53 victory.
Lesley had its chances to take the lead down the stretch. Grant Cobb and D'Elijah Dauphin each missed jumpers with Lesley trailing 50-49 with under 2:00 to play. Trejo grabbed his 12th rebound on Dauphin's miss, but a Lynx turnover with 53 seconds left was followed by a pair of Pierce free throws. Down 52-49, a Dauphin layup with 22 seconds left was rebounded by Pierce, who hit two more at the line and closed the book on the Lynx comeback attempt.
Trejo and the Lynx outrebounded Wheelock 45-34, but Lesley shot just 36.5 percent for the game (23-63) and was held to 16.7 percent (3-18) shooting from three-point range.
Rice and Main tied for team-high honors with 14 points each, and Pierce added 11 points on 7-7 shooting at the charity stripe for the Wildcats.
Lesley travels to Southern Vermont for a 1:00 NECC tilt Saturday afternoon.