New London, CT -- Junior Ian Converse (Woodstock, CT) had 14 of his career-high 21 points in the first half leading #13 WPI to a 78-58 win over Coast Guard in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.
Converse was 8 for 9 from the field and 5 of 6 from the foul line to lead the way.
With the win, WPI head coach Chris Bartley became the Engineers all-time wins leader as he picked up the 291st win of his career passing the mark of 290 held by Ken Kauffman.
Bartley is a four-time NEWMAC Coach of the Year compiling a 291-107 record. He has led Engineers to nine NEWMAC regular season championships as well as NEWMAC conference tournament championships in 2005, 2006 and 2013.
Junior Sean Doncaster (Medford, MA) added 12 points while sophomore Obi Obiora (Boston, MA) had his fourth double-double finishing with 12 points and a game-high ten rebounds while senior Clyde Niba (Atlanta, GA) added 11 points in the win as WPI improved to 16-2 overall and 6-1 in the NEWMAC.
Sophomore Ethan Boose (New Philadelphia, OH) led the Bears with 15 points and eight rebounds while junior Adrian Chuquillangui (Manassas, VA) added 12 points. The Bears drop to 8-9 overall and 2-5 in conference play.
WPI jumped out to a 9-2 lead and took their first double digit lead 17-6 following a pair of free throws byConverse with 12:33 left in the first half. The Engineers made 7 of their first 11 field goal attempts in taking the 11 point lead.
Senior Ricky Rodriguez (Caracas, Venezuela) hit a 3-pointer with 12:04 left in the first half cutting the deficit to 17-9, but WPI would go on a 20-3 run taking a 37-12 lead following a bucket by freshman Jamani Spencer (Sierra Canyon, CA) with 1:44 left in the half.
Coast Guard made some noise late in the first half by scoring the final eight points of the half trailing 37-20 at the break.
WPI shot 51.6 percent in the first half (16-31) while the Bears were 8 of 28 (28.6) in the first 20 minutes.
WPI led 50-34 with 13:30 left before using a 13-2 run as Converse closed the run with back-to-back baskets as the Engineers opened up their largest lead of the game to that point 63-36 with 9:39 left.
The Bears shot 50 percent in the second half (15-30) and finished the night shooting 39.7 percent (23 of 58) including 7 of 19 from behind the arc while WPI finished 29-55 from the floor (52.7 percent) and 1 of 9 from 3-point range.
Coast Guard is back in action on Saturday when they host Wheaton in a NEWMAC game at 3pm. WPI is also home on Saturday, hosting Springfield at 7pm.
Release Courtesy Coast Guard Sports Information