MIT Holds on for 87-83 Road Win Over Men's Hoops

THE BASICS 

Score: 
Emmanuel College, 83; MIT, 87

Records: 
Emmanuel College Saints (5-2, 1-0 GNAC)
MIT Engineers (7-3, 0-0 NEWMAC)

Location: Boston, Mass. – Andy Yosinoff Court  

Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2021

THE LEAD –   The MIT men's basketball team fended off a late surge by host Emmanuel College to hold on for an 87-83 non-conference road victory on Tuesday evening at the Jean Yawkey Center in Boston, Mass.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• An old-fashion three-point play by MIT junior guard Alex Cho (San Diego, Calif.) with 4:45 to play in the second half put the Engineers ahead by 10 (76-66) before the Saints turned things on down the stretch to set the tone for a tight finish.  
• After trading hoops to a 78-69 score, EC put together an 11-4 run fueled by triples from senior Giovanni Ciampa (Tewksbury, Mass.) and grad student Dakota Wheeler (Easthampton, Mass.) to make it a one possession game at 82-80 with 1:01 to play after a pair of free throws by junior guard Ricky Martin (Sicklerville, N.J.).
• MIT converted on the ensuing possession on a layup by Charles Rich (Holladay, Utah) to bump the lead to 84-80 but another old-fashion three-point play by EC sophomore Eljay Morris (London, England) with 37 seconds to play made it a one-point game at 84-83.
• Coming out of an Engineer timeout, the Saints forced a turnover and had a chance to hold and shoot for the win but were called for an offensive foul in transition with 10 seconds to play, giving the ball back to MIT down one.
• EC immediately fouled Cho who converted both free throws to move the score to 86-83 and after advancing the ball to midcourt Emmanuel used its final timeout to draw up a play to try and send the contest to OT. Out of the break, Martin had a clean look from the near corner from behind the arc but missed the attempt and MIT held on for the 87-83 win, going 15-for-16 from the free throw line in the effort.
• In the opening half, the sides traded leads early on before the Engineers were able to build a 24-14 lead after a Cho triple with 8:52 left.
• The Saints closed the half strong, cutting the deficit to 36-33 at the break behind 13 first-half points from sophomore guard Donte Pope (Middletown, Conn.).
• MIT led by as many as 15 in the second half (61-46) before the hosts chipped away for the exciting finish.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Pope led all scorers with a game-high 24 points, adding six assists and five boards while Wheeler and Martin finished in double-digits with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
• Cho paced MIT with a double-double of 22 points and 10 assists while senior forward Giannis Chatziveroglou (Athens, Greece) also scored 22 points. Rich chipped in with 15 points.
• The Engineers finished the night going 15-for-16 from the free throw line compared to a 13-for-20 effort by the Saints.
• Both sides made 10 threes in the game with MIT shooting 50.0% (10-20) from behind the arc compared to a modest 10-27 (37.0%) from EC.

UP NEXT

• Emmanuel returns to action on Saturday, December 11 when they host Colby-Sawyer College in GNAC action at 3:00 PM
• MIT is now idle until next year as they'll take some time off over the semester break before returning to action on January 5, 2022 hosting Clark University at 7:00 PM in their NEWMAC opener.