Norton, Mass. – January 8, 2025 – A driving layup by Xoren Livingston (Wayland, Mass.) with six seconds to play gave the Springfield College men's basketball team a thrilling 83-81 overtime win over Wheaton College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Wednesday evening in Emerson Gymnasium.

Springfield improved to 2-0 in NEWMAC play and 5-6 overall, while Wheaton fell to 0-3 in conference play and to 5-7 overall.

Jarron Flynn (Roslindale, Mass.) led all scorers with 21 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the floor and 8-for-14 from the free throw line for Springfield tonight. He also added seven rebounds, two assists and a steal in the win. Josiah Evely (Toronto, Ontario) registered 16 points and nine rebounds, Livingston added 15 points, four steals and three rebounds and Curtiss Blische (Barkhamsted, Conn.) tallied ten points and five boards for the Pride.

Wheaton saw five student-athletes in double figures led by 19 points from Tristan Herry. Dimetri Iafrate went 6-for-11 from the floor and registered 15 points for the Lyons, while Khaled Thaher pulled down a game-high ten rebounds for the hosts.
 
Trailing 51-44 with 13 minutes to play, Springfield outscored Wheaton by a 21-4 margin over a stretch of nearly nine minutes in the second half and went ahead by ten, 65-55. The Pride went 5-for-11 from the floor, 11-for-13 at the free throw line over the run and used six different scorers to account for their 21 points. On the other hand, Wheaton went just 1-for-16 from the floor over the same stretch including a 1-for-8 mark from behind the arc.

A three point bucket by Ty Murphy ended Springfield's run with 3:47 remaining. Then with under a minute to play and Wheaton trailing by seven, 71-64, a layup from Eoin Morrissey made it a five point game before the Lyons forced back-to-back turnovers in the back court. Livingston turned it over and allowed Murphy to bury a corner three before a turnover by Evely allowed Iafrate to score the game tying basket with 1.1 seconds remaining in regulation.
 
In overtime, Evely gave Springfield a quick four point edge, 75-71, with back-to-back layups before Morrissey once again buried a trey to make it a one point game. Livingston came up big and knocked down a corner three of his own with 36 seconds left to push Springfield's lead back to four at 81-77. Turnovers in the back court, however, haunted Springfield once again as a pair of turnovers allowed two fast break layups by Morrissey to even the score at 81.

Out of a timeout with 20 seconds left, Paulino drove the court and handed it off to Livingston who scored the game winning basket under the hoop with six seconds to play. Wheaton's Sal Pedevillano heaved up an attempt at a game winner as time expired, but the shot went long and Springfield held on for the 83-81 overtime NEWMAC win.

As a team, Springfield shot 48.3-percent from the floor (28-for-58) and knocked down 24 of 38 attempts from the charity stripe, the most Springfield has made since scoring 25 from the free throw line a season ago at Rutgers-Newark. Springfield also outscored Wheaton by a 48-18 margin in the paint.
 
Springfield will host Salve Regina University in NEWMAC action on Saturday at 1:00 pm in Blake Arena.

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