New London, NH --- Sam Longwell (Acton, MA) scored 19 of his career-high 26 points in the second half to help 11th ranked WPI to an 85-66 win at Colby-Sawyer College on Tuesday evening. 

The Engineers improve to 8-1 and will host Keene State on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Colby-Sawyer drops to 2-4 and will resume North Atlantic Conference (NAC) play on Thursday with a home game against Johnson at 5:30 p.m. 

The visitors jumped out to a 10-6 lead after Longwell connected on his only trey of the first half. The Chargers then scored the next six points on three layups to take a 12-10 lead. With Colby-Sawyer holding its largest lead of the game at 14-11 with 14:16 left, WPI went on a 19-2 run. The Engineers received seven points from Ryan Kolb (Southington, CT) and a pair of treys from Zach Karalis (Andover, MA) in the spurt. Colby-Sawyer did not back down after trailing by 15 points with 5:43 to play in the frame. The Chargers scored 12 straight points capped by a pair of Stephen Thorpe (Chicago, IL) free throws to cut the deficit to three at 37-34. A Longwell jumper was the final basket of the half as WPI took a 43-38 lead into the break. 

WPI began to pull away in the second half after the Chargers were able to keep the deficit under 10 for the first three and a half minutes of the stanza. The Engineers' lead ballooned to 23 with seven minutes to play after a Longwell three-pointer. Colby-Sawyer's Jake Maynard (Shelburne, VT) made a three as time was winding down, but WPI won 85-66 and pushed its win streak to five games. 

Longwell canned 5-of-8 from behind the 3-point land, topping his career-high by a point.  The junior guard tossed in 25 twice in an eight-day stretch last season in victories over Becker and Husson.  

Zach Karalis also enjoyed success from long range, draining 4-of-8 from behind the arc en route to registering 18 points.  Ryan Kolb amassed 12 of his 14 points in the first half while Aaron Davis(Marshfield, MA) and Michael Moroney (North Andover, MA) both chipped in with eight points.  Davis led all players with eight assists (and just one turnover) on the night. 

Junior Mike Dias (Carver, MA) scored a team best 17 points on 7-12 shooting to lead the Chargers. Sophomore Wol Majong (Manchester, NH) added 15 points, while junior Zach Bean(Scarborough, ME) went 7-11 for 14 points. Senior Stephen Thorpe climbed into 10th on Colby-Sawyer all-time steals list with 140 after three thefts on Tuesday. He added seven assists and six points. 

WPI shot 48.3% from the floor and an impressive 42.3% (11-26) from beyond the arc. Colby-Sawyer did most of its work in the paint with 38 points, which led to a 44.3% night from the floor. 

Release Courtsey Colby-Sawyer Sports Information