WORCESTER -- John Lowther (Hingham, MA) collected his fourth double-double of the season and eighth of his career to propel nationally-ranked WPI to a 70-45 NEWMAC triumph over visiting MIT in a matchup of Engineers played Wednesday evening in Harrington Auditorium.  

WPI, ranked 20th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25 and appearing in the initial Division III Region II alphabetical rankings, is now 18-3 on the season and 10-1 in conference play.  With the results around the conference tonight, the Engineers are assured of at least a top two seed in the NEWMAC Tournament later this month and a will host a tournament semifinal on Thursday, February 23rd at 7pm.  WPI hold a two-game lead over Emerson for the top seed with just three games to go in regular season play.  MIT is 4-16 overall and 2-9 against conference foes. 

Lowther shared game-high scoring honors with 16 points and paced all players with 11 boards on the night.  The senior was joined in double figures scoring by teammate Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA), who amassed 14 points to go along with a game-best six assists.  Brett Marelli (Hampton, NH) accounted for 9 of WPI's 20 bench points while John Adams (Quincy, MA) chipped in with seven points, six boards and four assists, Andrew Lufkin (Auburn, NH) netted seven points and Donovan Sevilla (San Ramon, CA) drained a pair of 3-pointers for six points. 

Rome Delgado-Gonzalez (Miami, FL) notched 16 points to lead MIT in scoring, while teammate Luke Wagner (Austin, TX) racked up 10 points. Parker Spann (Omaha, NE) led Cambridge's Engineers with nine rebounds and Delgado-Gonzalez gobbled up seven boards.    

The first half featured three distinct spurts.  It began when the game was knotted 5-5 and WPI rattled of 12 of the game's next 14 points to surge ahead 17-7 seven minutes in.  MIT then flexed its muscles, erupting on 13-2 run of its own to claim its first advantage of the game 20-19 with 7:56 to go before intermission. The Crimson and Gray ratcheted up the defense, holding the guests without a field goal the rest of the half on 0-5 shooting and forcing six turnovers, while ending the half with a 14-1 spurt to take a 34-19 edge into the locker room at the break. 

The lead would never shrink to single digits in the second half as the Crimson and Gray connected on 55.6% (15-of-27) of their attempts from the field.  Overall, WPI enjoyed an edge down low, holding a 42-28 advantage on the glass and outscoring the Cardinal and Gray 38-16 in the paint.  For the game WPI shot 46.0% on field goal attempts while limiting the guest to a 34.7% clip. 

The Crimson and Gray head out on a two-game road trip beginning Saturday as part of a rare same-school, same-site NEWMAC doubleheader between WPI and Coast Guard.  The men's game tips off at 1pm while the women's contest between the Engineers and Bears is scheduled for 3pm in New London.   MIT returns home on Saturday to host Wheaton at 2pm.