Owings Mills, MD --- Reigning National Player of the Year Aaron Walton-Moss (Camden, NJ) tallied 17 points and game-bests of 17 rebounds and six assists to pace No. 20 Cabrini to a hard-fought 68-61 victory over No. 12 WPI in arguably the marquee game of the three-day Hoopsville National Invitational Classic hosted by Stevenson on Sunday afternoon.     

WPI had battled back from a 13-point first half deficit and had forged a 55-55 deadlock on a Sam Longwell (Acton, ME) jumper with 9:26 to go in regulation.  The two teams then hooked up in a defensive battle that saw over three minutes of scoreless play before the Cavaliers took the lead for good with a 7-1 spurt in a 1:15 span than featured five points and an assist from Walton-Moss.  The Engineers had a late rally sidetracked when a layup, shown on the webcast replays to be taken off the glass, was not ruled a goaltending and an ensuing technical foul whistled against the Crimson and Gray resulted in a critical four-point swing.  To its credit, Cabrini canned six of eight free throws in the final 3:30 to keep the Engineers at bay.    

Like Walton-Moss, Longwell excelled in a matchup of preseason All-Americas.  The senior, named a fourth-teamer last month by D3hoops.com, led all players with 21 points, including a trio of 3-pointers and pitched in with six rebounds. Clyde Niba (Atlanta, GA) narrowly miss a double-double for the Engineers, registering 13 points and corralling a team-high nine boards.  Zach Karlis (Andover, MA) added nine points, including a pair of trifectas, and along with Aaron Davis (Marshfield, MA) and Chris Rodgers (Franklin, MA), contributed three assists.  Rookie Obi Obiora (Boston, MA) continued his strong start to the season with four points and five rebounds while Ian Converse (Woodstock, CT) grabbed three boards as a spark off the bench.   

Vinny Walls (Camden, NJ) was strong off the bench for Cabrini.  The senior himself equaled the scoring total of all the WPI reserves combined with 15 points on the night.  Jair Green(Williamstown, NJ) joined Walton-Moss with a double-double, collecting 11 points and 11 rebounds while Ace Henry (New Castle, DE) collected nine points where, in a statistically oddity, all of his only accumulated stats in 17 minutes of action were his 3-of-7 3-point attempts. 

WPI (3-1 )returns home Tuesday to host city rival Worcester State at 7pm.  Cabrini (3-1) is also 
back in action Tuesday, heading north to face Scranton at 7:30pm.