Men’s Basketball Bounces Back with 66-45 Victory at Wentworth

BOSTON, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene College men's basketball team posted a 66-45 win at Wentworth Institute of Technology Saturday afternoon, two days after enduring its third loss of the year.

The Lions vault to 18-3 on the season and 11-3 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference with the win. The Leopards move to 10-11 overall and 8-6 in league play with the decision.

Justin Wagner (Oklahoma City, Okla.) led all players with 15 points in the game as he connected on five three-pointers. Jaylen Owens (Johns Creek, Ga.) finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists on the day. Christian Lynch (Alpharetta, Ga.) notched 11 points off the bench.

Alex Jarman (Portsmouth, R.I.) posted eight points, four rebounds, four assists and a pair of blocks while Corey Doran (Fairfield, Calif.) tallied seven points and grabbed six boards.

Owens nailed back-to-back triples to open up the scoring for the visitors and grab a 6-2 lead.

Jeremy Wagner (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Justin Wagner each nailed a trey to widen Eastern Nazarene's advantage to 14-4 with 15:09 left to play in the half.

The Lions stretched the margin to 22-6 as Doran completed a three-point play the old-fashioned way at the free throw line with 11:52 remaining.

Wentworth outscored Eastern Nazarene 18-6 to end the first frame capped off by a last-second basket by Sam Knollmeyer as the Lions sported a 28-24 lead at halftime.

Owens paced the Lions with eight points in the opening 20 minutes of play while Doran tallied five points and five boards.

Eastern Nazarene shot 42.3% from the floor in the first half and 33.3% from long distance. Wentworth sank 35.5% of its field-goal attempts in the opening period and made just one trey on 13 bids.

After conceding the first bucket of the second half, the Lions increased their lead to 34-26 on a pair of three-pointers by Justin Wagner

The visitors expanded the margin to 15 points with 13:26 left to play as Christian Lynch banked in a trey from the left wing, 43-28.

Eastern Nazarene pushed its advantage to 62-43 as Eric Lynch (Alpharetta, Ga.) tossed in a fast-break layup with 2:33 on the clock after Jarman corralled a steal and lobbed a pass into the open court to setup the breakaway.

The Lions connected on 47.2% of their shots on the afternoon, including 37% from the perimeter. The Leopards finished with a field-goal percentage of 35.7% while being held to just 1-for-19 shooting from behind the arc.

Up next, Eastern Nazarene returns to the Lahue Physical Education Center for a midweek matchup against Salve Regina February 11.