BABSON PARK, Mass. – The Babson College men's basketball team used a 14-0 second-half run to pull away from visiting Newbury College on Thursday night, as the Beavers completed a 72-64 comeback win over the Nighthawks in a non-conference tilt at Babson's Staake Gymnasium.

With the win, the Beavers snapped a three-game slide and improved to 3-3 on the year, while Newbury dipped to 2-3 this winter.

Sophomore John Wickey (Manchester, N.H.) continued his outstanding play with another stellar performance for Babson, scoring a game-high 26 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Junior Kenny Ross (Furlong, Pa.) and senior Russell Braithwaite (Brooklyn, N.Y.) just missed joining him with double-doubles in the victory, with Ross netting 16 points to go with nine assists and Braithwaite adding 12 points and nine boards. The Beavers also received a magnificent performance off the bench by sophomore Ryan Stowe (Shrewsbury, Mass.), who scored a career-high 13 points while chipping in five rebounds, two steals, and a blocked shot. Stowe, Ross, and Wickey each hit three three-pointers for the hosts, who also notched 20 assists on 25 made shots.

Newbury received a brilliant performance in defeat from senior Tim Young (Brockton, Mass.), who hit his first eight field goal attempts of the game – including seven straight in the first half – to finish with 23 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Senior Peterson Bernard (Boston, Mass.) added a double-double with 14 points and 13 caroms, while junior Steve Rosemond (Everett, Mass.) tossed in 11 points to go with four assists and five boards.

Babson would net the game's first basket when Wickey scored off a Ross feed less than a minute in, but that would be the Beavers' last lead until the final minute of the opening half. Newbury scored seven unanswered points, including five straight by Young, to go up 7-2 with 16:12 left, and after the Beavers eventually pulled even at 13-13 midway through the session, the Nighthawks used another 7-0 run to take their largest lead of the period, 20-13, with eight minutes remaining.

Babson would again chip away at the deficit and eventually take their second lead of the contest, 30-29, following a Braithwaite lay-up with 1:05 to go in the half. However, Young answered with his seventh bucket of the period to give the Nighthawks a slim 31-30 edge heading into the break.

The second half saw the visiting Nighthawks surge out to a 45-36 advantage, thanks to six early points from Rosemond and five more from Young. Babson would fight back again and eventually even the score at 49-49 on a Stowe trifecta with 11:45 to go, but Newbury regained the lead on a Bernard put-back and a fast-break lay-up by junior Kwame Thompson (Brockton, Mass.) to go up 53-49 with exactly 11 minutes to play.

From there, the Beavers would embark on the game's decisive run, outscoring the visitors 14-0 over the next six and a half minutes to build their largest lead of the game, 63-53, with 4:22 left. Wickey highlighted the run with seven points – including three-pointers on both ends of the barrage – while Stowe tacked on another trifecta and Braithwaite added a lay-up and two free throws.

A 7-1 run by Newbury late in the game eventually cut the margin to just four at 66-62 with 1:28 to play, but junior Matt Palazini (Franklin, Mass.) sank a pair of free throws to push it back to six with 58 seconds left. Two Bernard freebies again trimmed the Nighthawks deficit to four, 68-64, with 27 ticks remaining, but the Beavers finally put the game out of reach with two free throws apiece by Ross and Wickey in the closing seconds as Babson held on for the hard-fought 72-64 victory.

This was the final home game for more than two weeks for Babson, which next heads to Norwich University for the Hockenbury Classic this Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, Newbury faces its second straight NEWMAC foe when it heads to MIT for a 2 p.m. showdown with the top-ranked Engineers this Saturday.