Worcester, MA --- No. 4 WPI connected on seven of its last eight 3-point attempts of the first half as the Engineers won their 23rd straight game, defeating visiting Coast Guard 89-53 Saturday afternoon in Harrington Auditorium.
WPI remains perfect on the season and is now 21-0 overall and 8-0 in conference play. The Engineers are the lone remaining undefeated team in NCAA Division III and join Division II's Western Washington and Metro State (CO) as the only unbeaten squads among the 1,038 teams across all three NCAA Divisions. Coast Guard slips to 1-18 on the season and 0-8 in NEWAMC action.
The home standing Engineers never trailed in the contest, scoring the first seven points and forcing to Bears to misfire on their first eight attempts from the field in the opening 5:32.
Matt Harrington (Shrewsbury, MA) spearheaded the attack from behind the 3-point line, going a perfect 3-for-3 from downtown while establishing a new career-high in scoring with 11 points in the first half. As a team, WPI shot 66.7 from behind the 3-point arc en route to enjoying a 50-23 advantage at the intermission.
The hosts had five players reach double figures in scoring lead by Ryan Kolb (Southington, CT) with 17 in just 17 minutes of action. Sam Longwell (Action, MA) added 16 points whileZach Karalis (North Andover, MA) chipped in 14 and Harrington and Marco Coppola(Watertown, MA) finished with 11 and 10 respectively.
Freshman Michael Moroney (North Andover, MA) helped WPI enjoy a 46-24 bulge on the glass, sharing a game-high seven rebounds with Wil Michalski (Shrewsbury, MA) who also set a new career-best with seven boards.
Jimmy Knudsen (Ridge, NY) tossed in a team-best 16 points for Coast Guard, canning 4-of-5 3-pointers for the Bears. Greg Marshall (Gaithersburg, MD) tallied 14 points while Ed Gailor(Lancaster, PA) and Devonte Weems (Westerly, RI) each doled out five assists as the visitors passed the ball well and were credited with 14 assists on 18 made baskets.
WPI closes out its regular season home schedule on Wednesday, entertaining Wheaton on Senior Night. Coast Guard returns to Worcester the same evening to face Clark. Both games tip at 7pm.