Johnston carries Lyons down the stretch to 67-64 win over Endicott

December 9, 2006

BEVERLY, MA- Junior Eric Johnston (South Windsor, CT/East Catholic) scored eight of his 14 points in the last 68 seconds, including the winning free throw with three seconds left, to lift the Wheaton College men's basketball team past Endicott College, 67-64 on Saturday. The Lyons moved to 4-3, while the Gulls fell to 2-6.

A significant streak ended during the game, as the Blue and White had a run of 346 consecutive games making at least one three-pointer snapped. It was the first time since December 4, 1993, during a home contest with Trinity College that the Lyons failed to connect from beyond the arc.

Endicott broke out to three seven-point leads during the opening stanza, but the Lyons countered twice to knot the contest. The Gulls snapped a 13-all tie with a 9-2 run to take a 22-15 edge at 7:03, but Wheaton junior Brent DiGiovanna (Hanover, MA/Hanover) recorded a three-point play before senior Brian Zukowski (Dracut, MA/Dracut) tallied the next four points to force a 22-all deadlock at 4:36.

After the Gulls led, 31-24 at halftime, Wheaton came back to make it 35-35 at the 16:13 mark of the second period on junior David Harding's (Hanover, MA/Boston College) bucket. Harding canned a jumper with 15:08 left to give the Lyons a 38-37 edge, their first since 4-3, and begin a wild finish. From that basket until the final buzzer, the teams traded the lead seven times and forged three ties.

DiGiovanna converted a Johnston pass into a hoop with 8:09 remaining for Wheaton's largest lead of the contest, 51-44, before the hosts slowly regrouped. Zukowski's lay-up at 3:49 kept the Lyons up, 59-55, but Endicott junior Gary Corbett (Danbury, CT/Danbury) nailed a three just 13 seconds later before hitting a jumper with 1:31 to go and gave the Gulls the lead back at 60-59.

Johnston was fouled with 1:08 left and knocked down two freebies to give the visitors the 61-60 lead, but senior Nemanja Marinkovic (Belgrade, Serbia/Second Baptist) scored 17 seconds later to put the hosts back in front before sinking two free throws with 26 ticks remaining to keep the Gulls on top, 64-61. Johnston carried his team from there, dropping in a lay-up with 17 seconds left and, after Endicott missed the front end of a one-and-one, notching the tying and winning free throws with three seconds left. He sank two more with no time remaining.

DiGiovanna produced game highs of 16 points and eight rebounds, as he helped the Lyons hold a 34-25 rebounding advantage. Johnston's 14 points came thanks in large part to a 6-of-6 showing on free throws, while Zukowski added 13 points and a game-high five assists while canning 7-of-8 freebie attempts. Harding and freshman Ben Stehle (Newton, MA/Newton South) each notched eight points. The Lyons hit 25-of-27 free throw tries for the third-highest percentage (92.6) in program history while shooting 59.1 percent from the field in the second half.

Corbett tallied 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, hitting all three three-pointers he attempted, while Marinkovic added 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. The Gulls canned 8-of-17 shots from beyond the arc but attempted only eight free throws, making six.

Wheaton has two more games before the 2006 calendar year ends, as the Lyons will take part in the Salem State Christmas Invitational on Friday-Saturday, December 29-30. The Blue and White opposes Fitchburg State College in the opening round on December 29 at 3:30 p.m.

This page is maintained by Scott Dietz. Last updated on 1/25/07.
Questions about this page? Use our query form.

News Headlines

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Upcoming Schedule

4-Dec Thu Roger Williams H 6:00pm
(Live Stats)
6-Dec Sat Bridgewater State H 3:00pm
(Live Audio)
29-Dec Mon SUNY New Paltz N 8:00pm