WORCESTER -- With a 92-71 victory in game one of the Ted Coghlin Memorial Tournament Friday night, the WPI men's basketball team now finds itself on to the championship game on Saturday afternoon.
The Engineers (2-0) were led by John Lowther (Hingham, MA) who finished with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting and six rebounds in the victory. Three other players also chipped in double-digit scoring efforts as John Adams (Douglas, MA) added 13 points and six boards, Colin McNamara (Arlington, MA) added 12 points and a pair of steals and Logan O'Donnell (Fishkill, NY) tallied 10 points, and was 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
The Engineers shot 57.1 percent from the field making 40 of their 70 shots attempted and pulled down 40 boards in the game while dishing out 21 assists and making 12 steals.
WPI will face Colby at 4pm on Saturday in the title game. The Mules outlasted New England College 94-84 in overtime in the later game. NEC and Saint Joseph's tangle in the consolation game at 2pm.
Saint Joseph's (0-1), who was paced by Nicholas Curtis' (Windham, ME) game-high 23 points and three steals, was relegated to the consolation game of the tournament on Saturday. Griffin Foley (Portland, ME) added 15 points while Drew Shea (Mount Desert Island, ME) added four points while dishing out four assists and pulling down seven boards.
The visiting Monks got out to a quick five-point lead, thanks to back-to-back buckets from Cameron Yorke (Auburn, ME) and Julian Llopiz (Boston, MA) who made it a 16-11 ball game six minutes into the first half before the Engineers turned on the offense.
WPI responded with a 12-2 run that saw four different players tally a basket including a four-point addition from Lowther to make it a 29-20 ball game in favor of the Engineers. St. Joe's got within three, but WPI an O'Donnell and-one followed by back-to-back layups from Andrew Lufkin (Auburn, NH) and McNamara gave WPI a 39-29 lead and forced the Monks to call a timeout.
An 11-0 run down the stretch in the first half built up the WPI lead to as much as 17 before the Engineers' headed into the intermission with a 50-35 advantage.
The two teams were neck-and-neck out of the break, but back-to-back Kahleb Downing (Middletown, CT) treys five minutes into the half put things out of reach as the Monks were only able to manage one basket in a near-seven minute span where the Engineers gained as much as a 30-point lead.
The largest WPI lead of the ballgame came at the 6:53 mark in the second half when a Austin Zhou (Acton, MA) made free throw made it a 86-52 game.
Cole Marzinzik (Hampton, NH) made a layup at the buzzer for Saint Joseph's, but the Monks would fall 98-71.
The 27-point margin of victory was the largest since a 102-62 victory over Clark on Feb 5, 2020.