Boston, MA --- Junior Donovan Sevilla (San Ramon, CA) registered a career-high and a game-best 17 points and John Adams (Douglas, MA) was a rebound short of a double-double as No. 8 WPI men's basketball team went on the road for the first time this season and emerged with a 74-62 victory at Emmanuel in a non-conference tilt played Sunday evening on Andy Yosinoff Court.
The victory moves the Crimson and Gray to 4-0 for the second consecutive year and 12th time under 22nd year head coach Chris Bartley. Emmanuel is now 1-3 on the young season.
Knotted at 9 four minutes into the contest, the Engineers rattled off 16 of the next 20 points to open up a 25-13 advantage nearly midway through the opening half of play. John Lowther (Hingham, MA) started the run with six straight points before Sevilla later drained a pair of 3-pointers, Adams tacked on two free throws and Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA) added a layup. The two teams played even basketball over the final 10 minutes of play in the first half and the Crimson and Gray went into the locker room with a 43-31 edge at the intermission.
The second half was played within a 10-point window, with the Saints clawing back to within seven at 49-42 on a Bryant Ciccio (Attleboro, MA) trifecta with 16:08 remaining and WPI leading by as much as 16 at 72-56 when Callahan nailed a shot from downtown with just 3:11 to go.
Sevilla established a new career scoring standard for second straight contest and has now reached double figures in scoring in all scoring in all four WPI games this season. The junior was 6-of-9 from the field and 3-of-5 from behind the arc. Adams tallied 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor and gobbled up a game-best nine rebounds. Callahan totaled 13 points and doled out four assists, Lowther totaled 11 points, grabbed six boards and led all players with five assists, Brett Marelli (Hampton, NH) came off the bench to add nine points and Andrew Lufkin (Auburn, NH) canned a pair of 3-pointers and hauled in six rebounds.
Donte Pope (Middletown, CT) amassed 15 points, 11 after halftime, for the hosts, including four trifectas and Ken Jean-Francois (Randolph, MA) amassed nine of his 11 points before intermission.
For the game, WPI held large edges in both points in the paint (32-8) and second chance points (17-6) while the hosts connected on nearly half (14-of-29 - 48.3%) of its tries from downtown.
The Engineers wrap up a busy stretch of three games in five days on Tuesday, entertaining Worcester County rival Fitchburg State in Harrington Auditorium at 6pm. Emmanuel is also back on the court Tuesday, closing out a four-game homestand and two straight versus national-ranked foe by hosting No. 22 Wesleyan at 5pm.