WPI 85, Wheaton 68

Box Score  

Worcester, MA --- Jerome Kirkland (Boston, MA) poured in a team-best 21 points to help lift WPI to a 85-68 victory over visiting Wheaton in NEWMAC men's basketball action on Wednesday evening.  With the win, the Engineers, the top ranked team in the latest NCAA Division III Northeast regional poll, improve to 19-4 on the season and 10-1 in conference play.  Wheaton is now 13-11 overall and 5-6 in NEWMAC action. 

Before a boisterous crowd of 750, the game began as a back-and-forth affair, featuring seven ties and five lead changes in the first half alone. With the game tied at 8-8, WPI rattled off three consecutive baskets to take the largest lead of the half for either team at 15-8. The Lyons responded with six straight points from Anthony Coppola (Watertown, MA) to crawl back to within one. The game remained close throughout the rest of the half, until a clutch 3-pointer at the buzzer by Kirkland gave the Engineers a 41-36 advantage heading into the locker room.

WPI kept the pressure on in the second half, building upon its edge at intermission. With the score 49-44, the Crimson and Gray used a quick six-point spurt to push the lead to double digits at 55-44 with 11:13 left in the game. The WPI advantage hovered around 10 for most of the half, until a 14-4 run keyed by eight points from Fernando Perez (Lowell, MA) boosted the WPI lead to 20 with 2:35 to go. The Engineers were selective and efficient in the second half, taking only 24 shots as a team and sinking 14 en route to shooting 58.3% in the half.

Kirkland, the reigning NEWMAC Player of the Week, led WPI with five rebounds in addition to his team-high 21 points. Senior point guard Adam Lirette (Dover, NH) also played extremely well, adding 16 points, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out six assists.   The Crimson and Gray received a spark from its bench as Jeffrey Robinson (Granby, CT) tossed in 14 points and Bennett Lessard (Belgrade, ME) corralled five rebounds and notched three blocks.   

For the Lyons, Coppola led all scorers with 23 points before fouling out with 5:14 to go in the game. Anthony Weeks (Fitchburg, MA) was also in double figures for the Lyons with 15 points. Ryan Sasso (Peabody, MA) contributed eight points, while Jaxon Leo (Leesburg, VA) recorded seven points off the Wheaton bench.

The game marked the final home regular season contest for the WPI senior class of Lirette, NT Izuchi (Boston, MA), Kirkland and Will Lyons (Wilbraham, MA) with a pregame ceremony.  The win pushed WPI's NEWMAC record over the past four seasons to 42-5.  The group has also claimed four NEWMAC regular season titles and the 2006 NEWMAC Tournament championship. The Engineers started Lyons, who has missed the last eight games due to injury, so he could register possibly the last minute of his career and receive an ovation from the home crowd as he came off the floor. 

The game was the second half of a basketball doubleheader as part of WPI's Pink Zone festivities to promote breast cancer awareness and to benefit breast cancer research. In the early game, women's basketball defeated Babson 60-56 to win its second NEWMAC regular season title in the last three years.

Both teams close out the regular season with league contests on Saturday afternoon.  WPI ventures to Babson for a 3pm match-up while Wheaton returns home to face Clark in a 2pm affair. 

Story written by Ray Cotrufo '98 - WPI Athletics Department