BOSTON, MA - The Wheelock College men's basketball team begins a quest for its initial New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Tournament crown on Tuesday with a quarterfinal contest against fourth-seeded Newbury College at 8 p.m. The Wildcats, seeded fifth, face the Nighthawks at Hellenic College's Pappas Athletic Center in Brookline, with the winner advancing to a Friday semifinal at No. 1 Becker College at 6 p.m.
Becker, which is receiving votes toward the D3hoops.com national poll and is fourth in the NCAA Northeast poll, also hosts Saturday's title game at 2 p.m. The winner of this year's NECC Tournament will earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
Wheelock enters the postseason with a 10-15 overall mark after going 6-8 in the league this winter. At 10-14, Newbury was 8-6 in the league, including sweeping the Wildcats during the regular season, winning 72-54 on Jan. 8 and 68-62 on Feb. 8. The Nighthawks hold a slight 4-3 edge in the all-time series, as this will be the teams' initial postseason meeting.
Since winning only one game during its first season of play, in 2007-08, Wheelock has advanced to the NECC Tournament semifinals in each of the league's two seasons of existence. The Wildcats are 2-0 in quarterfinal contests, averaging 100.0 points during those two victories, before twice being knocked out in the semifinal round by eventual champion Elms College.
With the third seed on the line last Saturday, Newbury fell at Southern Vermont College, allowing the Mountaineers to be No. 3 in the NECC Tournament and the Nighthawks No. 4. A Newbury win would have forced Wheelock to make a nearly four-hour bus ride to Southern Vermont in Bennington, Vt. Instead, the Wildcats will travel two miles to Hellenic, which is closer to Wheelock than its home court at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill.
Junior Eric Rice (Woburn, MA/Woburn) paces the Wildcats with a career-high 14.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 28 blocks, while senior Daniel Main (Hopedale, MA/Hopedale) adds 13.4 points and 5.7 boards while placing third in the NECC in free-throw shooting (83.1%). Junior Kyle Pierce (Burlington, MA/Burlington) averages 11.5 points and is second in the league at the charity stripe (86.0%) while having collected a program-record 98 assists.
Junior Max Kaim (Fort Lauderdale, FL/Cypress Bay) contributes 9.6 points, leads the squad in steals (47) and is second in assists (68), while sophomore Bashir Hudson (Jamaica Plain, MA/Weston) averages 8.0 points and 6.3 rebounds. Junior Victor Kashouh (Providence, RI/Classical) is second in steals (46) and third in helpers (47), senior Patsy DiNuzzo (Beaver, PA/Beaver) has hit a team-high 33 three-pointers, and sophomore Daniel Higgins (Wakefield, MA/Austin Prep) shoots 47.2 percent from beyond the arc.