Men’s Basketball Falls to WPI 76-62

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College senior guard Andre French (Torrington, Conn.) scored 16 points, but WPI's Domenick Mastascusa (North Reading, Mass.) tallied all 13 of his points in the first half to spark the Engineers to a 76-62 victory over the Blazers in Tuesday evening's non-conference men's basketball game at Picknelly Arena.  

With the loss, Elms moves to 1-3 on the season, while WPI, which is receiving votes in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, remain undefeated and improve to 5-0 overall.

WPI never trailed in the match-up.  Elms forced its fifth and final tie at 14-14 nearly midway through the first stanza before a Mastascusa three-pointer and a pair of Marco Coppola (Watertown, Mass.) baskets ignited a 7-0 spurt that gave the Engineers the lead for good. 

Mastascusa was tremendous in the first half for WPI, nearly doubling his season total with 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting from the floor. Coppola, who was held scoreless for the opening 10 minutes, chipped in with 12 first half points as the Engineers carried a 44-31 advantage into halftime. French paced Elms with eight first half points.

The second half was tightly contested as WPI's advantage never crept over 16 points while the Blazers were unable to whittle the lead to single digits. 

Coppola and Sam Longwell (Acton, Mass.) shared team-high scoring honors with 16 points and Longwell added a career-best 10 rebounds en route to posting his first career double-double. 

Mastascusa took three charges on the defensive end to go along with his 13 points and Ryan Kolb (Southington, Conn.) added 11 points while point guard Aaron Davis (Marshfield, Mass.) handed out four assists to go along with seven rebounds.

French led the Blazers with 16 points and a game-best seven steals.  Point guard Piere Simpson (East Hartford, Conn.) and Kenneth Lockett (Atlanta, Ga.) both added 10 points with Simpson doling out a game-high five assists.  Senior forward David McDaniel (Plainfield, N.J.) topped the Blazers' effort on the glass with seven boards as Elms enjoyed a 17-7 bulge in second chance points. 

Junior forward Isaiah Odunlami (Providence, R.I.) added seven points on 3 of 4 shooting from the field.

Elms opens play Friday in the Pioneer Valley Classic hosted by Westfield State. The Blazers take on sixth-ranked Amherst College at 6:00 p.m.