BOSTON, Mass. – Trailing by as many as 16 points in the second half and by a nine-point margin with 4:23 remaining, the Wesleyan men's basketball team came storming back with a 12-1 run over the final 4:23 to defeat Endicott, 73-71, on Saturday night in the Emmanuel Tip-Off Classic Championship game. Wesleyan (4-0) has won a pair of in-season tournaments heading into Thanksgiving.
 
With their backs against the wall, Wesleyan turned to their backcourts with Shane Regan '25 igniting the comeback with a runner in the lane with just 3:25 left. After Endicott's Jeff Hill missed the front end of a one-and-one, Sam Pohlman '26 connected on a jumper, drawing the foul call in the process, to cut the deficit to five points with 2:40 remaining.
 
Forcing another stop, Nicky Johnson '25 quickly drove the lane, drawing contact and hitting his jumper in transition. After the made free throw, it was 70-68 Gulls with 2:05 remaining. Hill missed from three and on the ensuing trip, Johnson connected once again on a jumper in the paint to tie the score at 70-70.
 
Hill was forced into a turnover on the next Endicott possession and Regan hit on a jumper in the lane, giving Wesleyan a 72-70 lead with 47 seconds left. The Gulls' Elijah Kinney was fouled on an offensive rebound and stepped to the line where he made the first but missed the second free throw. The rebound was grabbed by Pohlman who was fouled with 15 seconds left.
 
Pohlman made 1-of-2 at the line, giving the Cardinals a 73-71 lead but plenty of time for the Gulls to go for the tie or win on their final possession. With five seconds left, Endicott called timeout, and on the out-of-bounds play, set a three-point attempt up for Ty Vitko who missed, thus ending the game and completing a miraculous late comeback win for the Cardinals.
 
Wesleyan was made to work in this one as the Gulls dominated the first half, leading 39-25 at the break with the Cardinals shooting just 30 percent (9-30 FG) from the floor in the first half while Endicott shot 47.1 percent (16-34 FG) with seven made three's.
 
The second half was a different story as Wesleyan shot 50 percent (17-34 FG) overall and buried 6-of-10 three-pointers while Endicott was held to 32.1 percent shooting (9-28 FG) and only hit 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from three in the final 20 minutes of play.
 
Regan, Johnson and Fritz Hauser '26 combined for 40 of the Cardinals' 48 points in the second half of play. Regan scored 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half alone. He shot 7-for-10 in the second half on his way to another productive outing.
 
Johnson scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half as he finished with six rebounds and five assists with no turnovers in 38 minutes. Hauser scored all 12 of his points in the second half, with the sophomore going 4-for-7 from three-point land.
 
Jackson Cormier '26 totaled eight points and nine rebounds in 36 minutes while Pohlman went for eight points, four rebounds, three steals, and two assists in 25 minutes.
 
Next up of the Cardinals is a fifth straight game played away from home as the Cardinals travel to take on Farmingdale State on Saturday, November 25 at 2 PM.