Worcester, MA --- Ryan Kolb (Southington, CT) paced four WPI men's basketball players in double figures in scoring with 18 points as the nationally-ranked hosts defeated NEWMAC rival MIT 65-59 in front of a raucous crowd of 1,600 in Harrington Auditorium on Saturday afternoon. 

WPI, sixth in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25, is 18-0 on the season and 5-0 in conference play, and has won 20 straight games dating back to last season's ECAC New England Championship.  MIT, the defending league champions, is now 12-4 overall and 3-2 in NEWMAC action. 

The game started out as a defensive showcase, as MIT misfired on its first 12 shots while WPI was off on its first five attempts.  A conventional 3-point play by Andrew Acker (Marion Stations, PA) 6:52 into the game was the visitors first made field goal and ended up equaling Cambridge's Engineers biggest advantage of the game. 

The opening half saw four ties and its biggest lead was only four points by WPI.  The hosts shook off the slow start to drain 10 of its last 19 shots en route to taking a 26-23 advantage into the locker room at the break. 

WPI rattled off the first seven points of the second stanza to push its advantage to double digits for the first of five times on the day.  MIT would not go away and got to within two on a pair of Matt Redfield (Los Altos, CA) free throws with 5:24 left.  The visitors drew within four at 55-51 with two minutes left, but a 6-0 spurt, spearheaded by four points from Sam Longwell (Acton, MA), secured the victory for Worcester's Engineers, who canned 8-of-10 from the free throw line in the final 44 seconds. 

Kolb tallied 14 of his team-best 18 points in the second half.  Freshman point guard Aaron Davis (Marshfield, MA) registered 14 points and Marco Coppola (Watertown, MA) and Longwell each contributed 10 points.  Coppola set a new career-high with six steals while Longwell led all players with five assists. 

All-America Mitchell Kates (Colts Neck, NJ) poured in a game-best 19 points for MIT.  The senior guard stuffed the stat sheets with six rebounds, three steals and two assists.  Redfield fell a rebound short of a double-double, posting totals of 10 points and nine boards while Will Tashman (Atherton, CA) chipped with 10 points and six rebounds.  The visitors got a boost from its bench as Acker netted eight points and six rebounds and Paul Dawson (Stone Mountain, GA) collected four steals. 

Both teams are back in action on Wednesday.  WPI concludes a three-game home stand as it entertains Springfield at 5:30pm while MIT wraps up its tour of Worcester with a 7pm trip to Clark.