Boston, Mass. – February 25, 2025 – In its first postseason game since 2020, the fifth-seeded Springfield College men's basketball team fell 67-50 to fourth-seeded Emerson College in the quarterfinal round of the 2025 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship Tournament on Tuesday evening in Brown & Plofker Gymnasium.

Emerson improved to 13-13 and will travel to top-seeded WPI for the semifinal round on Thursday at 7:00 pm, while Springfield sees its season come to a close at 10-16. This was the first postseason meeting between Springfield and Emerson since 2019 and the Lions are now 3-0 all-time against the Pride in the NEWMAC Tournament with previous meetings coming in the semifinals in 2019 and the quarterfinals in 2016.

Jarron Flynn (Roslindale, Mass.) guided Springfield's offense with nine points, while John Paulino (New Bedford, Mass.) had four points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Josh Hartley (Brooklyn, N.Y.)pulled down a team-best five boards in the effort. Three student-athletes from Emerson tallied double-digit points led by a 17 point effort from Lucas Brenner as he went 6-for-9 from the floor including 5-for-7 from behind the arc. Linus Holmhold pulled down a game-high seven boards for the hosts.

Springfield shot just 2-for-11 over the first six plus minutes of the game on layups from Curtiss Blische (Barkhamsted, Conn.) and Flynn and at the first media timeout, Emerson held a 9-4 edge. A 9-0 run by the Pride that stretch just over three minutes out of the break gave Springfield its first lead of the game. A trey by Zander Robinson (East Hartford, Conn.) off a feed from Paulino with 11:20 left in the stanza secured an 11-9 lead for the Pride before a pull up jumper from Samuels made it a 13-9 advantage less than a minute later.

Emerson answered with 13 straight points – 12 of which came from behind the arc. The run was capped on a four-point play from Guillermo Gasset Ruiz as he drained a corner three before knocking down the free throw as that gave the hosts a nine point lead at 22-13 with 7:29 remaining. A jumper by Xoren Livingston (Wayland, Mass.) cut Emerson's run before Springfield went on to outscore the hosts 10-5 over the final 7:12 of the half as the score stood at 27-23 at the break. A pair of layups from Flynn as well as driving buckets by Hartley and Paulino highlighted the half-ending spurt for the Pride.

In the opening half both teams converted just ten times from the floor with neither side shooting above 40.0-percent. The difference came from behind the arc as Emerson hit 6-of-10 shots from long range compared to a 1-for-5 effort from Springfield, but the visiting Pride held the hosts scoreless over the final 3:20 of the half.

Emerson outscored Springfield 14-5 over the opening five plus minutes of the second before a trey from Robinson cut the drought for the Pride, but Springfield still trailed by double figures with 13:27 to play. Emerson's 15-5 run that stretched over five minutes gave the hosts a 49-34 lead and saw Brenner score a third of Emerson's points during the run.

Emerson took a 20 point lead, 56-36, at the under eight media timeout and clinched the postseason win by a 67-50 final as the Lions advanced to the NEWMAC Semifinals for the second consecutive season.

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