Lyons suffer second NEWMAC loss at Coast Guard, 69-56

January 9, 2007

NEW LONDON, CT- The Wheaton College men's basketball team saw a five-point edge midway through the second half erased behind a torrent of United States Coast Guard Academy three-pointers, as the Lyons fell to the Bears, 69-56 in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action Tuesday evening in Merriman Gymnasium. The Blue and White fell to 6-5 overall and 0-2 in league play, while the hosts are now 8-4 and 1-1.

In what proved to be a low-scoring league affair, each team got off to a slow start. The Lyons missed their first 10 shots, while the Bears started 1-of-7 but held a 15-6 advantage 12:30 into the first half. However, sophomore Nick Michel (Hyde Park, MA/Boston Latin School), who entered the game averaging 4.8 points, tallied the final 10 points of a 13-0 Wheaton run, and the visitors took a 23-21 edge into the locker room.

The Lyons extended their lead to 28-21 early in the second period, and they held a 41-36 advantage with 12:34 to go in regulation before the Bears began a furious rally. After shooting 3-of-15 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Bears were bolstered by an 11-of-16 three-point shooting performance in the second stanza that helped them pull away.

Coast Guard took the lead for good thanks to an 11-0 run that milked the clock to 8:20 and pushed the score to 47-41, and while Wheaton stayed close by trailing only 55-51 with 4:20 left, the hosts put the game away by scoring the next 13 points during a span of less than three minutes.

Michel was the star offensive contributor for the Lyons, tallying a career-high 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting during 21 minutes off the bench. He also snagged five rebounds. Junior Brent DiGiovanna (Hanover, MA/Hanover) was next in the scoring column with 12 points, as he hit 4-of-6 field goal attempts while going 4-of-5 on free throw tries. Senior Brian Zukowski (Dracut, MA/Dracut) added a team-best six rebounds.

For the Bears, junior Jeff Prebeck (Columbus, IN/NAPS) had a memorable night with 10 points, including the 1,000th of his career, to go along with 19 boards, all of which came on the defensive end. Classmate Grant Johnson (Grayson, GA/Parkview) finished with 18 points, six caroms and five assists while hitting five three-pointers, junior Al Sowers (Monrovia, MD/Saint Johns School at Prospect Hill) added 17 points, and freshman Stefan Lewis (Warner Robins, GA/NMMI) came off the bench to go 5-of-7 from deep for 15 points.

Wheaton heads back into conference action on Thursday when it plays just its third home game of the season, with a contest against Clark University at 7:00 p.m.

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