WORCESTER – Sophomore Garrett Stephenson (Townsend, MA) earned MVP honors as the WPI men's basketball team reclaimed the Ted Coghlin Memorial Tournament title with a 65-57 triumph over William Paterson Saturday afternoon in Harrington Auditorium.
The Engineers, winner of three of the four tournaments, is now 3-0 while the Pioneers end the weekend 2-2.
Stephenson totaled 15 points and six rebounds after a 12-point, eight-rebound, two-block performance the previous night against SUNY Potsdam. Junior Jake Wisniewski (West Brookfield, MA) led all student-athletes with 17 point to go with five rebounds and three assists. Sophomore Jake Needleman (Morganville, NJ) delivered 11 points, five rebounds and a pair of steals as classmate Colin McNamara (Arlington, MA) chipped in with 10 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Sophomore Reid Walker (Lithia, FL), who handed out five assists, was limited to six points and six rebounds.
Junior Myles McLeod (Teaneck, NJ) guided the Pioneers with 13 points and a game-best eight rebounds. Junior Anthony Uribe (Hackensack, NJ), sophomore Domenic Mignone (Rutherford, NJ) and junior Henry Voorhees (South Orange, NJ) each netted six points while Mignone also hauled in eight boards. Junior starter Sean Smith (Moraga, CA) scored five while classmate Noah Basket (West Milford, NJ) to also notch five points.
WPI's Walker, and WPU's Smith and McLeod all handed in 20-points in their respective semifinals on Friday.
Needleman fueled a 7-0 run beginning with a jumper and a 3-pinter midway through the first half. Freshman Logan O'Donnell (Fishkill, NY) capped the spurt with a layup to make the score 19-13 in favor of the hosts with 10:43 on the scoreboard. Later in the half, Stephenson went on a personal 4-0 run to make it 23-15 with 6:55 remaining. Both teams went on to score 29 in the second half that saw the Engineers take as much as a 12-point advantage with 3:27 left in the contest.
For the game, the Engineers held advantages in rebounds (43-35), assists (13-10), points off turnovers (9-8) and second chance points (12-10). The Pioneers led the way in the paint (28-26) and off the bench (21-6). The teams were relatively close in field goal percentage (36.8 to 36.5) with the edge going to the guests.
WPI was 47.1 percent from downtown and 78.6 percent from the free throw line compared to 33.3 and 75 respectively. In the first half alone, the Crimson and Gray clicked at 54.5 percent and the Pioneers were 37.5 percent from the land of three.
The Engineers entertain Worcester State Tuesday at 5:30pm. William Paterson travels to Montclair State to open NJAC action Tuesday at 8pm.
Click HERE if the videos do not appear below