NEWTON, MA - The Wheelock College men's basketball team trailed by just one point with less than two and a half minutes remaining before falling, 62-53, to Mount Ida College at the Mount Ida Athletic Center on Tuesday evening. During the Wildcats' final contest of the opening semester, the visitors fell to 4-5, suffering their third loss by nine points or fewer. The Mustangs snapped a four-game losing streak in moving to 3-5.
Junior Eric Rice (Woburn, MA/Woburn) shot 6-of-11 for 13 points while adding three assists for Wheelock, while classmate Kyle Pierce (Burlington, MA/Burlington) notched 11 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Bashir Hudson (Jamaica Plain, MA/Weston) snagged 12 points while blocking two shots in his fourth start of the year, and senior Patsy DiNuzzo (Beaver, PA/Beaver) hit both of his three-point tries off the bench en route to nine points. Senior Daniel Main (Hopedale, MA/Hopedale) collected eight points and six rebounds, as he now has 950 points for his career, while junior Max Kaim (Fort Lauderdale, FL/Cypress Bay) contributed nine boards, three assists and three steals.
The Wildcats led the hosts 24-22 at the halftime, holding the Mustangs to 27.6 percent shooting, including 2-for-15 from three-point range, before Mount Ida used a 6-for-13 showing from deep in the second stanza. Junior Joe Cabral (Walpole, MA/Walpole) paced the hosts with 19 points, classmate David Gibbs (East Hartford, CT/The Masters School) had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while junior Travis Hillery (Tyngsboro, MA/Central Catholic) totaled 10 points and seven caroms. As a team, Mount Ida blocked 11 shots.
The squads exchanged 12 leads and 10 ties during the contest. After trailing by as many as eight, at 37-29, by 14:28 of the second half, Wheelock used a quick 9-0 run to forge back in front. Four different players scored in that time, with Pierce's three-point play at 10:13 giving the Wildcats a 38-37 edge. That proved to be the first of eight lead swings in a 5:01 span, as the Mustangs went on top for good after hitting a three-pointer with 5:12 left. Wheelock twice crept within one point, including for the final time on a Rice bucket with 2:37 to go, but the hosts scored the final eight points to pull away.
Kaim scored the Wildcats' first four points to erase his team's early 3-0 deficit, as Wheelock led for nearly the entire remainder of the opening stanza. A Pierce steal led to Main's hoop with 7:26 left that provided the visitors with a 21-16 advantage, what proved to be their largest of the game, but the teams knotted the score three times during the initial 2:44 of the second half before Mount Ida used a 9-1 run to create its 37-29 advantage.
Wheelock opens the new year with three home games in a five-day stretch, beginning against defending The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) Tournament champion and 2010 NCAA Tournament qualifier Gordon College on Tuesday, Jan. 4, at 5:30 p.m.