Babson Park, MA --- In a battle of NEWMAC men's basketball co-leaders, nationally-ranked WPI parlayed strong first half shooting into a 83-64 road victory to complete a regular season sweep of Babson on Saturday afternoon. The Engineers had defeated the Beavers 88-57 last month in Worcester.
WPI ranked No. 24 in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25, improves to 18-2 on the season and 9-1 in conference play while the Babson slips to 15-6 overall and 8-2 in NEWMAC action.
The Engineers used a pair of impressive runs in the opening 20 minutes to open an 18-point advantage at the break. Trailing 14-13 just over five minutes into the contest, Aidan Callahan (Triton, MA), Colin McNamara (Arlington, MA) and Andrew Lufkin (Auburn, NH) all drained 3-pointers to highlight a 11-2 spurt to put the visitors up for good at 24-16 just four minutes later. The visitors led by 11 before scoring 9 of the stanza's last 11 points over the last 2:17 highlight by a pair of John Adams (Douglas, MA) baskets and a conventional 3-point play by Kahleb Downing (Middletown, CT) in the waning seconds to take a 49-31 advantage into the locker room at intermission.
The Crimson and Gray shot 60% from the floor in the opening half, including 6-of-9 (66.7%) from downtown and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line. The guests also got in done on the glass in the first half, outrebounding the Beavers 20-11 before the break.
WPI netted the first four points of the second half and only saw Babson get as close as 13 points the rest of the way.
John Lowther (Hingham, MA) totaled 20 of his game-best 26 points in the second half, falling a point short of a career-high in points and a rebound short of a double-double. Adams amassed 16 points and 14 boards for his 12th double-double of the season and seven in 10 NEWMAC contests. McNamara and Downing finished with 14 and 10 points respectively with each pulling down six rebounds and Lufkin's eight points first half points were his second highest total of his sophomore season. Downing and Lowther both doled out three assists and Lowther and Callahan each were credited with a pair of blocks.
Nate Amado (Hanson, MA) and Kieran Dorney (Garden City, NY) both notched 17 points for Babson with Dorney grabbing 10 boards to secure his fourth career double-double. Mitchell Kirsch (Atkinson, NH) chipped in with 10 points for the hosts and Colin Bradanese (Billerica, MA) added eight points. Andrew Kirkpatrick (Winnetka, IL) and Kirsch shared game-high honors with four assists apiece.
WPI closes out a quick two-game road trip on Wednesday, venturing to Cambridge for a 7pm matchup at MIT. Babson is also on the road at 7pm on Wednesday, squaring off at Springfield.