Lasers Fall to 18th Ranked WPI in Newton

Newton, MA – The Lasell men's basketball team was defeated by 18th ranked WPI, 74-51, in a non-conference game Thursday night at the Lasell College Athletic Center.

WPI's Matt Carr (Somerworth, NH) led all scorers with 18 points and Marco Coppola (Watertown, MA) chipped in 16 for the Engineers.  Junior co-captain Sean Bertanza (Seymour, CT) was the scoring leader for the Lasers with 13 points.  Earnest McNeil (Boston, MA) was a leader off the bench with 12 points. 

WPI controlled the game from the start scoring the first 11 points of the game.  A McNeil layup at 13:59 finally got the Lasers on the board.  The Lasers seemed to find a rhythm after that first bucket cutting the Engineers lead to 17-12 at the 10:35 mark.  But after a Javon Williams (Mattapan, MA) free throw at 9:46, WPI went on a 20-9 run and took a 37-22 lead into the half.

WPI came out in the 2^nd half and increased their lead to 43-24.  A three point basket by Bertanza and a layup by Williams cut the Engineers lead to 43-29 at the 16:11 mark.  But the story throughout was WPI's ability to answer any Lasell comeback, going on a 22 to 11 run and increasing their lead to 65-40 at the 6:45 mark.  Jeremy Daniel (Bridgeport, CT) scored the final basket of the game making the final score 74-51 WPI.

WPI's size proved to be an issue all night as they out rebounded the Lasers 40-28.  Matt Carr managed to grab 9 rebounds to go along with his 18 points. 

With the win, the Engineers, remain undefeated at 5-0 and Lasell drops to 1-5 on the season.  The Engineers next game is the second game of a four game road trip Saturday December 3 against non-conference opponent Becker College.  The Lasers will look to rebound when they return to action on the road Saturday Dec. 3 against conference opponent Mount Ida at 1 p.m.

 --story by Dan Nunn