CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Top-ranked MIT rolled out to an early 8-0 lead and never looked back as the Engineers led from wire to wire in an 86-53 win over Emmanuel College in men's basketball action in the Rockwell Cage. MIT (3-0) saw 12 players on its roster get in the scoring column, led by senior Mitchell Kates (Colts Neck, N.J.) who turned in his third straight 20-point effort with 23. Senior Michael Mailhot (Norwich, Conn.) led Emmanuel (0-1) with 17 points and five rebounds.
After an opening two and a half minutes in which neither team could get a shot to drop, Kates put MIT on the board first with driving layup on which he was fouled. Sinking the free throw to complete the three-point play he went on to hit two more field goals over the first five minutes of the game to lead the Engineers to the early 8-0 advantage. Junior Josh Welles (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Mailhot hit back-to-back shots that cut the MIT lead to four, but it would prove to be as close as the Saints would get in the contest.
MIT, which shot 64 percent for the game, rattled off 14 consecutive points over the next five minutes to put Emmanuel in an early hole. Kates scored seven of the points, with senior Will Tashman (Atherton, Calif.) adding six, to put MIT up 22-4 with nine minutes left in the half. The Engineer defense, which held Emmanuel to 28 percent shooting in the half, played its part in the Saints missing 10 straight field goal attempts as the Engineers pushed their lead to 25-5 before a jumper by junior Brandon Jones (Windsor, Conn.) halted the streak.
Emmanuel got it down to a 15-points deficit on a Mailhot trey with four minutes left, but MIT rebuilt its lead to 20 as freshman Justin Pedley (Kennewick, Wash.) hit a layup a the end of the half to give the Engineers a 38-18 halftime bulge.
MIT's advantage continued to hover around the 20-point mark for the first four minutes of the second half. A layup by Kates off a dish from Tashman started the first MIT surge of the half, one that put the game away early for the Engineers. A three-point shot from the corner by sophomore Dennis Levene (Weston, Conn.) completed the run, putting MIT up 63-32 with 13 minutes left. The closest Emmanuel could get after that was after a Mailhot trey made it 71-45 with 9:10 left. Freshman Russell Johnson (New York, N.Y.) hit a pair of threes down the stretch and fellow freshman Lampros Tsontzos (Maroussi, Greece) hit on a layup to provide the final points of the night.
Tashman finished with his second straight double-double, adding 11 points and grabbing a season-high 16 rebounds. Pedley had nine points and four assists for the Engineers, with Levene finishing with seven points. Senior Xavier Everson (Rochester, N.Y.) also reached double figures for Emmanuel, finishing with 14 points.
MIT will continue its first home stand of the season after Thanksgiving, with the Engineers hosting Curry College on Saturday, November 24 at 1:00 p.m. Emmanuel will not be in action again until November 29 when the Saints will play at Wesleyan University at 7:30 p.m.