HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. — In their first game of 2025 and their inaugural game in the Atlantic East Conference, the Pratt Institute men's basketball team was tied at halftime with Centenary University before suffering an 85-59 road defeat on Wednesday afternoon.
Cameron Windt paced Pratt (0-12, 0-1) with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting with four assists. Thomas Graetz and Justin Caver both chipped in 10 points apiece to round out three Cannoneers in double figure scoring. Caver pulled down a team-high and game-high-tying seven boards with a trio of assists and steals. Graetz nabbed five caroms with three dimes and two thefts.
The Cannoneers scored 10 unanswered over a span of just over two minutes to race out to a 10-2 lead. The Cyclones (7-7, 1-0) responded with eight straight to level the game and the remainder of the first half saw several ties and lead changes. Centenary crept out to a 26-18 lead just under the nine-minute mark with Pratt using a 9-0 spurt capped by a Hursh Mehta triple to put the black-and-gold up 27-26 and both teams entered the lockers deadlocked at 31-all..
The early parts of the second stanza saw two ties and two lead changes with Windt's layup at 16:01 putting Pratt ahead 41-40. But Centenary assembled a 13-1 run to take the lead for good and rode the strength of a 66 percent (21-of-32) connect rate in the half – after being held to 33 percent in the first – to pull away from the Cannoneers.
Naire Preston led five Centenary players in double figures with a game-high 20 points. Justin Carbone netted 13 points.
Pratt travels to Scranton, Pennsylvania on Saturday, January 11 for a 1 p.m. Atlantic East tilt with Marywood University.
