This story originally ran in The Standard-Times on Nov. 24, 2002.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times correspondent

DARTMOUTH -- The UMass Dartmouth men's basketball team's defense couldn't come through yesterday, making costly errors late in the game in an 85-79 loss to Wheaton College in the Hampton Inn Classic final.

"We were lacking," said Corsairs head coach Brian Baptiste. "Mentally, physically, our defense wasn't there. I thought they scored at will."

The Lions were able to jump out to an early 7-0 lead, which would foreshadow the troubles the Corsairs would be unable to overcome.

"I thought they outplayed us, outhustled us, I thought it was a really poor effort," said Baptiste. "And I don't think it was our offense that was the problem.

"It was a breakdown defensively, mentally and physically."

The Corsairs kept it close throughout the game on the strength of strong shooting from Matt McAuliffe and Tim Gaspar, who picked up 20 and 13 points respectively, as well as the inside play of center Sean Walsh, who racked up 18 points along with six rebounds.

UMD forced Wheaton to hustle on defense as it was able to take the lead on several occasions, and never fell farther behind than 10 points, walking into halftime with a 38-37 lead.

In the second half, however, Wheaton followed up a McAuliffe layup and a Gaspar 3-point shot with three straight 3-pointers of their own, taking a 46-43 lead early in the second half.

As the Corsairs fought to stay in the game, both Walsh and Ryan Surprenant fell into foul trouble early in the second half, and before the end they would both foul out.

"When you're not playing good defense, you're fouling people," said Baptiste. "You're getting there late, and you're trying to make up for a mistake that you already made, so you end up hitting someone and put them at the foul line."

Wheaton would end up going 10-for-11 at the foul line in the last two minutes of the game, and timely rebounds by Wheaton's Josean Vega and Sean Kelly effectively put any chance of a win out of UMD's reach.

"In the last couple of minutes of the game there were important rebounds that (Wheaton) got," said Baptiste. "They were just scrapping and doing things that we did (Friday), and those are the little things that win games.

"They made the big plays that needed to be made."

After the game, the Hampton Inn Classic All-Tournament Team was announced, with McAuliffe and Gaspar earning honors from the Corsairs.

With the win, Wheaton snapped UMD's hold on the tournament, handing the Corsairs their first loss in the four years that the classic has been held.

UMD had beaten Salve Regina 78-56 in the tournament opener Friday night.

This story appeared on Page E1 of The Standard-Times on November 24 2002.