Springfield, Mass. - February 3, 2018 - The Springfield College men's basketball team cruised past visiting Emerson College, 86-57, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) battle on Saturday night in Blake Arena.
Springfield has now won nine-straight games to improve to 15-6, 9-1 in conference play, while Emerson dropped to 9-12, 3-7. The nine-straight wins is the most since the 2001-02 team rattled off 10-straight victories in the early going of their campaign.
Five different players scored in double figures in the win, with Jake Ross (Northampton, Mass.) totaling 15 points and 14 rebounds. Heath Post(Cheshire, Conn.) added 15 points, nine boards, and four assists, while Brandon Eckles (East Greenwich, R.I.) tallied 13 points and three blocks and Andy McNulty (West Springfield, Mass.) registered 13 points and six assists. Ben Diamond (New York, N.Y.) netted 10 points off the bench for Springfield, which shot 52.5% (32-for-61) from the floor and outscored the Lions in the paint, 42-16. Additionally, Springfield converted 17 Emerson turnovers into 20 points.
For Emerson, Geoffrey Gray recorded a team-best 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Jacob Ries chipped in 10 points. The visitors were limited to just 20-for-60 shooting on the night and hit just 6-of-29 attempts from behond the arc.
Back-to-back triples from Cam Earle (South Hadley, Mass.) and McNulty allowed Springfield's lead to grow to 16-4 just over five minutes into the game, but the Lions would respond with eight-straight points of their own to pull within 16-12 at the 10:57 mark following a jumper by Gray. Holding onto a 19-14 advantage with 8:51 on the clock, Springfield put together a 10-0 burst in a 2:12 span to push its cushion to 15 after a turnaround jumper in the paint by Post. Post would bring the home crowd to its feed with a thunderous two-handed slam in traffic to make it a 40-22 contest with 1:28 to play and the Pride would go into the half with a 45-26 advantage.
A bucket by Ross in transition allowed the Pride to gain a 51-28 lead as the Lions burned a quick timeout just 2:16 into the half. Springfield would connect from beyond the arc on three-straight possessions to push the lead to 62-33 at the 15:31 mark, and the lead grew to 33 when a three-point play by Trey Witter (Unionville, Conn.) made it 69-36 at 12:16. Emerson would get no closer than 24 and Springfield would coast to its ninth-conference victory of the season.
Next up for Springfield is a matchup on the road with rival Wheaton, which will be played Wednesday at 7 pm.