BOSTON — The University of New England nailed 10 of 16 three-point attempts after halftime to fend off Wentworth Institute of Technology for a 93-80 Commonwealth Coast Conference men’s basketball victory on Wednesday night at Tansey Gymnasium.
Now with the season sweep of WIT, the Nor’easters (7-18, 5-11 CCC) pull within a half-game of the Leopards (8-16, 5-10 CCC), who visit league-leading Nichols College to close out the regular season on Saturday. Between UNE, Wentworth, and Salve Regina University (4-11 CCC) — which plays host to winless Curry College this weekend — two squads will make it into next week’s postseason championship.
Alex Kravchuk topped the Nor’easters with 20 points, largely behind 7-of-10 shooting from the floor. Daron Hoges, Jr. pumped in 12 points, and Ryan Beatty went 9-of-9 at the line in the 2nd period to end with 11 more. Jackson McCoy drained a trio of trifectas following the break to total nine points. Drew Patno  corralled a team-high seven rebounds.
For the contest, UNE knocked down 13-of-34 from behind the arc, while the Leopards only connected on 2-of-20 from deep. The visitors also registered 24 points off 23 WIT turnovers.
Leading the way for Wentworth was junior Stephen Azums, whose 27-point, 13-rebound performance set him at exactly 1,000 career points. Zach Bergeron contributed 21 points and seven boards for the hosts, who had a commanding 47-31 advantage on the glass.
The Nor’easters raced out to a 19-4 cushion through 7:35 of action, however things were soon knotted at 26-all. UNE never fell behind, though, and sat on a 39-33 edge at intermission.
The margin swelled to 16 (61-45) early in the final frame, before the Leopards closed the gap to six (69-63) just ahead of the midway mark in the stanza. UNE hit five of its next six shots to spread things back into double digits for good (81-67) with under eight minutes to play.