CHESTNUT HILL, MA - Junior Ricky Clark's (New Britain, CT/New Britain) three-pointer with seven seconds remaining gave nationally-regarded New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) leader Becker College the final lead and negated a Wheelock College men's basketball comeback, 72-70, on Saturday at Pine Manor College's Brunelli Court. The Wildcats slipped to 9-11 overall and 5-5 in the league, while the Hawks pushed their marks to 17-3 and 9-0. Becker is receiving votes in this week's D3hoops.com national poll and is ranked sixth in the latest NCAA Northeast rankings.
Senior Daniel Main (Hopedale, MA/Hopedale) notched 23 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the hosts, who also received 17 points, 12 boards and two blocks from junior Eric Rice (Woburn, MA/Woburn), as he recorded his second straight double-double. Classmate Kyle Pierce (Burlington, MA/Burlington) shot 6-for-7 while netting 15 points, and junior Max Kaim (Fort Lauderdale, FL/Cypress Bay) added five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Wheelock, which held a 39-26 advantage on the boards against a team ranked 39th in Division III in rebounding margin, went 8-of-17 from three-point range and 16-of-18 on free-throw tries.
Becker senior Trae Jacobs (Lexington Park, MD/Great Mills) led all scorers with 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting while blocking a pair of shots, and junior Markus Wright (New Haven, CT/Wilbur Cross) had 14 points and six rebounds in a reserve role. Freshman Tyler Roberson (Irvington, NJ/St. Mary of the Assumption) added 12 points off the bench for the Hawks, who shot 50 percent from the floor and committed only 10 turnovers in the contest.
Wheelock trailed 67-54 following a Clark jumper with 4:17 to play before staging a furious 16-2 rally to grab the lead, 70-69, at the 20-second mark on a pair of Main freebies. Senior Patsy DiNuzzo (Beaver, PA/Beaver) canned a three-pointer at 1:27 to make it 67-65, and Pierce countered a Jacobs jumper with a trey with 49 ticks remaining to make it 69-68. After Becker missed a free throw and Main responded with his tying and go-ahead freebies, Clark nailed his winning three-pointer from the left wing. The Wildcats forced the ball upcourt were unable to release a shot before the buzzer.
The hosts forged a 13-3 lead early in the contest while forcing Becker into missing its first eight shots. Main scored six of the initial eight points. The Hawks whittled away at a later 15-5 deficit, using a 16-5 run to take their first lead, 21-20, on a Wright jumper at 6:05 of the opening period. That accounted for the first of seven lead changes prior to halftime, and a long Wright two-pointer from the corner just before the buzzer made it 35-32 by intermission. Becker shot 55.6 percent in the stanza, but Wheelock held a 24-7 rebounding advantage, leading to a 19-0 showing in second-chance points.
Wheelock scored 13 of the first 15 points in the second half to open a 45-37 advantage on Pierce's jumper at 13:29, but Becker later turned a 47-39 hole into a 67-54 lead thanks to a 28-7 run during a 7:36 stretch. The Hawks went 12-for-17 from the field in that time, as Jacobs paced seven scorers with nine points. Main scored at 3:45 to begin the hosts' late comeback bid.
The Wildcats hit the road on Tuesday to face Newbury College in an 8 p.m. NECC contest at Hellenic College in Brookline.