Babson Park, MA --- MIT freshman Bradley Jomard (Paris, France) erupted for career-highs of 33 points and 12 rebounds as the third-seeded Engineers defeated second-seeded WPI 96-80 in a NEWMAC Tournament semifinal contest played at Babson on Saturday afternoon. 

MIT, who improves to 20-6 on the season, advances to Sunday's noon championship game versus top seed Babson, a 74-69 winner earlier Saturday over fifth-seeded Emerson.  WPI, 20-6 as well and ranked 24th nationally in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25 and fifth in the most recent NCAA Division III, awaits word on a possible NCAA Tournament Pool C bid.  Selections will be announced on Monday at 12:30pm. 

After Ian Converse (Woodstock, CT) forged the game's fourth tie at 26-26 with 5:41 to go before the break, Cambridge's Engineers closed the half on a 13-2 run spearheaded by eight points from Jomard.  3-pointers was a large factor in MIT's 39-28 halftime advantage as the Cardinal and Gray drained seven of its first 10 from behind the arc.  

In the second half it was a different story for MIT as the Engineers connected on 69.2% (18-of-26) of their 2-point attempts, as WPI employed a full court press throughout the half that forced nine turnovers but also resulted in layups for MIT.  The advantage ballooned 20 points on two different occasions in the second half, but WPI, who attempted 33 second half trifectas, sliced the deficit to 13 points each time but were unable to get any closer. 

Jomard canned 12-of-22 tries from the field and 7-of-8 bids from the charity stripe and seven of his 12 rebounds were on the offensive glass. Justin Pedley (Kennewick, WA) poured in 13 points for MIT while Ryan Frankel (New York, NY) and Tim Roberts (Oak Bluffs, MA) each totaled 13 and Cameron Korb (Los Gatos, CA) added 10.  Adam Jurko (Weston, FL) and Lampros Tsontzos (Amarousion, Greece) both ended with six points and combined for 14 rebounds while Jurko doled out a game-best five assists. 

Sean Doncaster (Medford, MA) led a balanced WPI attack with 14 points.  He was joined in double figures by Converse and Jamani Spencer (Closter, NJ), who had 12 points each, and Clyde Niba(Atlanta, GA), who registered 10.  James Loring (Norton, MA) and Dave Zielinski (Shelton, CT) both added seven points to highlight a WPI bench performance that saw Worcester's Engineers outscore their reserve counterparts 39-23.  Converse grabbed nine rebounds to narrowly miss his fifth double-double of the season.  The junior also paced all players with three steals on the day.