springfield, massachusetts – After nearly three weeks between games, the Wesleyan men’s basketball team beat Farmington University, Maine, 73-62 in the opening round of the hosted Hampton Inn West Springfield/Naismith Classic on Friday afternoon. and resumed where it left off. By Springfield University.
The Cardinals, leading by just one in the second half of the game, held the Beavers scoreless in the final 3:51 of play and had 10 unanswered points to eventually win in double digits. With this win, the Cardinals are now 4-5 on the season and have won 3 of their last 4 games. The Beavers fell to 4-4 overall, losing two in a row.
Wesleyan will advance to the title game of the regular season tournament, where they will face hosts Springfield at 3pm on Saturday.it will be 35th It’s the most meeting ever between the two sides, but only the third since 2000.
The Cardinals beat the Beavers to take a 36-24 lead. Gabe Lovetts The ’23 led all scorers by throwing 9 of 11 points in the first half alone.
After trading buckets for the first four minutes, Ravetz hit a 3, Jared Langs ’25 converted a three-point play down low to give the Cardinals an early 11-7 advantage. Following the make of Cyrus Moorer, the Cardinals took the lead with his 11–0 scoring run that started with Preston McCaw’s ’23 triple.McCoo scored again before Shaquille Desony ’23 scored four straight points and Langs closed out the run with two more points to make it 22-9.
Wesleyan’s lead ballooned to 15 points late in the first half and they broke by 12 points.
Seeking to recover from that 11-point cardinal run, the Beavers put up some fighting from halftime and scored eight unanswered points to cut the gap to just a four-point deficit. In favor of the Cardinals, another McCaw 3 followed by a jumper from Desony made the Cardinals 46–37 with 13:10 remaining.
Maine-Farmington continued to dig in and eventually cut the deficit to just one point with 3:51 remaining. The Cardinals clung to his 63-62 advantage and possessed him for the final four minutes of the play, a span in which he outscored the Beavers 10-0.
Nicky Johnson ’25 started the series with the Cardinals scoring on three straight possessions, starting the game-deciding run with a floater in the paint. Johnson followed Floater with another basket into the paint and Desony stopped a feed from Ravetts to make it 69-62. His throw in the final minute of free finally proved sufficient for his Wesleyan comfortable victory.
McCoo led the Cardinals in scoring, rebounds and assists as the senior wing tallied 16 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists. It was McCoo’s second double-double of his career and his first double-double of the season.
Three others finished in double figures, including Johnson (11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists), Lovetts (11 points, 7 rebounds) and Langs (10 points, 5 rebounds), while Desony had 6 rebounds and 3 assists. I got 9 points.
Shane Regan ’25 returned to the floor for the first time since 30 November 2021, scoring 7 points in 11 minutes of action.
Maine-Farmington were led by Therion Moss, who scored a game-high 19 points with 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Jack Kane tallied his 14 points, eight rebounds and three blocks, and Nathan Poulin came off the bench as he scored 14.