WORCESTER -- A 13-0 run sparked by Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA), spanning six minutes late in the second half, was the catalyst in a No. 21 WPI men's basketball NEWMAC Semifinal round victory over Clark on Thursday night. The Engineers erased an eight-point deficit and came away with a 72-56 victory. 

The defending NEWMAC tournament champions, WPI is now headed back to the NEWMAC Championship game for the fifth-straight season and will face #3 Babson, a 69-64 winner Thursday at Emerson, on Saturday, February 25 at 2pm.   The Engineers were making their 19 straight semifinal appearance and will be playing in their 12th NEWMAC final, the most of any school in the conference. 

After Clark (15-12) took an eight-point lead at 49-41 on the back of a Jordan Richard (Lawrence, MA) 3-pointer with 11:09 remaining, WPI (22-3) was able to chip away at that lead, kickstarted by a Donovan Sevilla (San Ramon, CA) jumper and followed up by a pair of deep balls from Callahan to erase the Clark advantage and even the score at 49-all. John Lowther (Hingham, MA) put the Engineers on top with a jumper and a three ball from the corner to cap the 13-0 run and take the wind out of the Clark sails.  

The WPI defense held Clark without a field goal from a 9:30 minute stretch from 11:09 to go to 1:39 remaining, forcing the Cougars to miss on seven straight shots, including five 3-pointers, and commit four turnovers.    

Led by a 22-point, and 12 rebound effort from Lowther, a 21-point, six assist outing from Callahan and a 12-point, four rebound and three steal outing from Sevilla the Engineers earned their 26th-straight win over Clark dating back to the start 2010-11 season. 

The Cougs battled for the majority of the game led by a 13-point, seven rebound outing from Mikey O'Brien (New York, NY), while Bruce Saintilus (Plainville, MA) added 11 points and Reid Neumann (Burbank, CA) finished with a 10 point outing.  

A hard fought first half saw WPI with a slim one-point lead at halftime. The teams traded baskets through the first five minutes of action before WPI went on a mini burst with back-to-back buckets from Lowther and Adams to gain a 12-8 lead.  

A J.R. Newman (Havertown, PA) trey a possession later built that lead to six, though O'Brien answered on the other end for the Cougs. The Engineers were able to keep it a two-possession game until a Saintilus 3-pointer with six-and-a-half minutes remaining cut the lead to two, with WPI leading 19-17.  

A pair of free throws from Saintilus evened the score at the 4:09 mark but three-straight Lowther buckets gave the Engineers a three point buffer until a last second layup with time expiring by Kekoa McArdle (Pittsfield, MA) made it a 29-28 halftime game.  

Sevilla started things off with a jumper but Neumann evened things out with a trey as the two squads once again went back and forth during the opening stretch.  

This time another Saintilus three gave Clark its then-largest lead of the game, 40-37, at the 14:35 mark of the second half and following a pair of Callahan free throws, back-to-back-to-back O'Brien layups built that lead to seven, 46-39, with 12:16 to go.  

But WPI was able to stay with the Cougs and eventually chip away at that lead thanks to a Sevilla jumper and a pair of deep balls from Callahan to erase the Clark advantage after an 8-0 run and reset things with 8:57 to go, ultimately coming away with the victory.  

The Engineers held Clark to just one basket over the final 11:09 of the game, turning what was a hard-fought battle into a blowout during the final five minutes of action. 

Over one third of Clark's makes came from deep as the Cougars finished with seven made threes on the evening. WPI outrebounded Clark 35-32 and also forced Clark into 15 turnovers, netting 12 points off of those 15 errors, while committing just four turnovers of its own.  

WPI moves on to the NEWMAC Championship game on Saturday afternoon, while Clark's season has come to a close.