Springfield, Mass. - January 13, 2016 - Led by a pair of double doubles from Josh Altman (Rockport, Mass.) and Larry Piretra (Oakland, N.J.), the Springfield College men's basketball team cruised to an 82-60 win over Wheaton College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action in Blake Arena on Wednesday.

The Pride snapped a six-game slide with the victory and improved to 4-9, 1-2 in league play, while Wheaton drops to 7-6, 1-2.

Altman poured in a game-high 21 points to go along with 10 boards, while Piretra added 15 points and 10 rebounds of his own as each connected on three trifectas in the contest.  Kevin Durkin (Worcester, Mass.) provided great minutes off the bench, notching 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting.  Springfield finished the game shooting 32-for-60 (53.3%) and handed out 19 assists. 

For Wheaton, Billy Battaglia (Simsbury, Conn.) scored a team-best 15 points, and Quinton Dale (Winthrop, Mass.) totaled 10 opints and eight caroms.  The Lyons shot just 19-for-56 (33.9%) but connected on 20-of-24 from the charity stripe. 

After a sluggish offensive start in which the teams combined to miss their first 11 shots, Springfield opened up a 10-4 cushion after Piretra drilled a three from the wing with the shot clock winding down at the 12:41 mark.  The Lyons answered back with a 11-4 burst, taking a 15-14 lead on an up-and-under finish from Drew Vittum (Grafton, Mass.).  The visitors would extend their lead to 26-20 on a Battaglia layup with 4:43 on the clock, but Altman heated up on the offensive side of the ball to kickstart the Pride offense down the stretch.  Pouring in 10 points himself, Altman fueled an 18-6 Springfield surge to close out the frame as the hosts headed into the break with a 38-32 lead.

Springfield scored the first eight points of the second half as its lead ballooned to 46-32 following a Piretra putback just 2:46 into the stanza.  The Lyons didn't back down though, pumping in seven-straight points to force Springfield into its first timeout of the evening just 1:44 later.  However, Springfield answered with a 10-0 run of their own to take control for good as the lead grew to 56-39.  Springfield, which shot 60% from the field in the second half, went on to lead by as much as 25 on a Brendan Abad (Longmeadow, Mass.) triple in the final minutes.

The Pride will play again on Saturday when it travels to take on MIT in another important conference game beginning at 3:00 pm.