Wheaton opens ECAC Holiday Festival with 78-68 setback to Oneonta State

The Wheaton College men's basketball team began the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Holiday Festival with a 78-68 setback to the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oneonta on Tuesday in the Milk House Arena at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.

Wheaton slips below the .500 mark to 4-5, while the Red Dragons, who were crowned tournament champions, won for the fourth straight time to improve to 8-1.

Junior Anthony Coppola (Watertown, MA/Watertown) shot 9-of-14 from the field and paced the Lyons with a game-high 21 points, four assists and three steals.  Senior Ben Stehle (Newton, MA/Newton South) went for 12 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while sophomore Brendan Degnan (Narragansett, RI/Bishop Hendricken) also had 12 points, going 10-of-12 at the charity stripe.  Sophomore Bruno Naylor (Los Angeles, CA/Northfield Mount Hermon School) contributed 11 points and six boards in just 15 minutes as a reserve.

Seniors Brian Beckford (Brooklyn, NY/Christ the King) and Michael Grimes (Albany, NY/Catholic Central) each had 18 points for Oneonta State.  Grimes finished with eight rebounds and four assists, while Beckford pulled down seven rebounds.  Junior Troy Talbot (Brooklyn, NY/The School for Legal Studies) had 17 points and six helpers off the bench.

Wheaton forced the Red Dragons into 23 turnovers but allowed Oneonta State to shoot 55.1 percent from the field.  The Red Dragons held a 41-27 rebounding advantage while going to the free throw line 29 times in the second half.  The Lyons shot just 39.2 percent from the floor and 22.7 percent beyond the three-point arc.

Wheaton and Oneonta State battled through five ties and four lead changes in the opening half, as neither team led by more than five points.  Both squads started slowly on the offensive end, with the Lyons holding a 4-2 edge after nearly six-and-a-half minutes.  After the game was knotted at 12 with less than nine minutes to play before the break, two free throws from Degnan and a lay-in by Coppola gave the Blue and White its largest lead of the stanza at 8:03.

After another Coppola hoop made it 18-14, the Red Dragons responded with seven unanswered points over 1:16 to take a 21-18 lead.  Wheaton brought its deficit to one three times, including twice by Naylor, before Oneonta State connected on a last-second lay-up for a 29-26 halftime advantage.  The Lyons forced 12 turnovers but shot just 32.0 percent from the field while being outrebounded by a 20-12 margin.

The Red Dragons pushed their lead out to six to begin the second half before Wheaton used an 8-0 run in taking a 34-32 edge at 17:53.  Coppola, who had six points in the run, scored 13 of the Blue and White's initial 17 points in the frame, later bringing the Lyons to within one at 44-43 with 12:56 to go.  Five points in 48 seconds from Stehle kept Wheaton close at 50-48 before Oneonta State went on a 13-1 spurt over 4:49 for a commanding 63-49 advantage at 5:56.

Trailing 69-55 with less than three minutes showing on the clock, Wheaton made one final push, using an 11-2 run capped by a Naylor triple to get to within five points at 56 seconds.  However, the Red Dragons made four straight free throws during a span of seven seconds and didn't look back.

The Lyons wrap up their two-game stretch tomorrow morning against the State University of New York Institute of Technology (SUNYIT) at 10:00 a.m.  SUNYIT reached last year's NCAA Tournament.