Box Score THE BASICS
Score: WPI 86, Emerson 64
Records: Emerson Lions (4-11, 0-4 NEWMAC); WPI Engineers (10-5, 1-3 NEWMAC)
Location: Worcester, Mass. (Harrington Auditorium)
Date: January 14, 2017
The Lead: Junior John Geary (Duxbury, Mass.) led the Emerson men's basketball team with 15 points, but the Lions could not stop WPI on Saturday afternoon as the Lions suffered an 86-64 loss to the Rams in NEWMAC play.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Geary finished 5-for-12 from the floor with a team-leading 15 points to match four rebounds.
- Sophomore Geoffrey Gray (Newton, Mass.), who notched his 15th straight game with double-figures in points, went 4-for-15 from the field with 14 points and had eight boards, two assists and one steal.
- Junior Michael Sheng (Altadena, Calif.) posted 10 points and went 2-for-5 from the field.
- Freshman Alex Mrusek (Point Pleasant Beach, N.Y.) led the Lions with nine rebounds and sophomore Alex Miles (Venice, Calif.) had a team-high four blocks.
- Dave Zielinski paced the host Engineers with 21 points and two steals, while both Jamani Spencer and Jake Wisniewski each tallied 14 points.
- Wisniewski led WPI with eight boards and Sean Doncaster had an overall game-high nine assists.
- Emerson shot 39.6% (21-53) from the floor and made 5-of-19 (26.3%) three-point shots. The Lions outshot the Engineers on the free throw line and made 17-of-19 (89.5%) and also on the glass with 41 rebounds.
- WPI finished shooting 47.9% (34-71) from the field, shot 48.3% (14-29) from downtown and made 4-of-7 (57.1%) from the charity stripe and recorded 30 boards.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Emerson were held to shooting 30.0% through the first half and allowed WPI to build a significant lead throughout.
- Just 1:10 into the opening frame, the Engineers jumped out to an 8-2 lead and never lost sight of it.
- With 16:22 to go, Emerson found themselves down by double digits at 10 (14-4) and then with 8:06, saw WPI stretch their lead to 23 (39-16) after James Losing sank a shot from downtown.
- Through the final 5:39, Emerson came within 16 four times thanks to their success at the charity stripe and closed out the first half with a pair of good free throws by Gray to put the Lions within 17 at 50-33.
- Like the first half, Emerson managed to cut WPI's deficit down to 16 several times, but the Engineers pushed their led to 24 with five minutes left on the clock in the second half.
- Emerson's offense put up 10 points through the final 4:45 and cut the lead to 20, but a jumper from Wisniewski put the Lions away, 86-64.
UP NEXT
- Emerson remains on the road to square off against Wheaton (Mass.) on Wednesday, January 18 in a 7:00 p.m. NEWMAC tilt.
- WPI heads to Clark on Wednesday, January 18 that is slated for a 7:00 p.m. start.
STAY LIVE WITH THE LIONS
