Leo's season-best showing propels Lyons to road victory at Salve Regina

November 28, 2006

NEWPORT, RI- Freshman guard Jaxon Leo (Leesburg, VA/New Hampton School) recorded a Wheaton College season-high 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting Tuesday night, leading the Lyons' men's basketball team to an 83-77 non-conference victory over Salve Regina University at the Rodgers Recreation Center. Wheaton finishes its season-opening road trip at 2-1, while the Seahawks fall to 2-2 overall.

Leo spearheaded a solid outside shooting performance by the Lyons, making 5-of-7 from behind the three-point line. As a team, Wheaton knocked down 9-of-20 beyond the arc, including five of its nine attempts in the second half, as the Blue and White outscored Salve Regina, 48-41 in the stanza in overcoming its one point halftime deficit.

Senior Brian Zukowski (Dracut, MA/Dracut) moved up two places on Wheaton's all-time scoring list following his 21-point showing. Standing eighth in career scoring, Zukowski went 9-of-10 from the free throw line while grabbing a game-best eight rebounds and dishing out a game-high-tying three assists. Junior Eric Johnston (South Windsor, CT/East Catholic) rounded out Wheaton's double-figure scorers with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 21 minutes.

In tonight's opening half of play, the two teams traded leads five times before the hosts established a lead on a jumper by freshman Sean Wirth (Barrington, RI/Barrington) to give the Seahawks a 15-14 edge with 11:01 to play. Salve led by as many as nine with 3:15 to go, but the Lyons closed the half on a 10-2 run to narrow the gap to one at the break.

The second half remained close in the early going, including a 40-40 tie on a Leo trey with just under 17 minutes remaining. Leo gave Wheaton the lead for good following his three-point bucket with a lay-up at 16:13. The Lyons reeled off 12 unanswered points to match the largest lead of the game at 49-40. Wheaton extended its advantage to 11 points on two occasions, and Salve got as close as two twice, but the Blue and White pulled away with the aid of knocking down eight of its final nine free throws.

Wheaton finished the contest shooting at an 80.0 percent clip from the charity stripe while holding a slight 33-31 rebounding advantage and committing just 12 turnovers. In addition to the Lyons' trio of double-digit scorers, Salve Regina had four players score in the kind, with junior Chris Goodridge (Merrimack, NH/Merrimack) leading the way with a team-best 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Senior Matt Grendal (Foxboro, MA/Foxboro) had 16 points and six rebounds, while sophomore Justin Woodworth (Ipswich, MA/Ipswich) and senior Jon Hazzard (North Kingstown, RI/North Kingstown) added 12 and 11 points, respectively.

The Lyons open their home portion of the season on Thursday when they take on Emerson College in a non-league game at 8:00 p.m. Wheaton holds a perfect 12-0 mark against the Lions.

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Upcoming Schedule

15-Nov Sat Plymouth St. Tip-Off A 7:30pm
16-Nov Sun Plymouth St. Tip-Off A TBA
18-Nov Tue Salve Regina A 7:00pm