WORCESTER -- John Adams (Douglas, MA) continued his recent run of doubles with a game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds and Donovan Sevilla (San Ramon, CA) amassed 11 of his 14 points in the second half as host WPI claimed at least a share of the NEWMAC Men's Basketball regular season championship with a 72-63 triumph of Springfield on Wednesday. 

The Engineers, who are ranked fourth in the most recent NCAA Division III Region II rankings and are receiving votes in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25, improve to
20-4 on the season and 13-2 in conference play.  Springfield falls to 7-17 overall and 4-11 in NEWMAC play.  

WPI has now won at least a share of a NEWMAC championship for the 12th time in the last 19 seasons under 23-year head coach Chris Bartley.  The Crimson and Gray, who also reached the 20-win mark for the 17th time over the last 20 years, can win its ninth outright regular season crown and secure the top seed in next week's NEWMAC Tournament with either a win on Saturday at Wheaton or a Clark loss the same day at Springfield. 

Defense ruled the opening 20 minutes as Springfield was held to 29.6% shooting from the floor while WPI only hit 35.3% of its shots from the floor.  The hosts led for a majority of the first half with the exception of a 42 second span just over three minutes in where the Pride was ahead 6-5 following a Cameron Garber (Billerica, MA) trifecta.  WPI's biggest edge in the opening half was 10 at 24-14 and the Engineers and, behind 10 points and eight rebounds from Adams, led 30-24 at the break. 

The Engineers rattled off the first eight points of the second half on 3-of-3 shooting from floor with five points from Adams and three by Sevilla to surge ahead 38-24 but the Pride, who misfired on their first three shots and had two turnovers to start the second stanza responded with 12 straight points, including a pair of 3-pointers by Nick Bray (Hartford, CT) to pull within two at 38-36 with 14:11 remaining.    

WPI saw its advantage balloon to 12 points at 60-48 with 7:42 only to see the Pride once again claw back within a bucket with 10 straight points over the next three minutes but a late 6-0 spurt keyed by a layup and a pair of free throws from Adams kept the visitors at bay the rest of the way.  Both teams shot much better in the second half as Springfield drained 53.8% of its shots and WPI 52.0%. 

Adams, who was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000th career point in a win Saturday at MIT, tallied his sixth straight double-double, ninth in his last 10 outings, 14th this season and 37th in his career.  The senior was 10-for-15 from the field with nine of his 11 boards off the defensive glass. Sevilla accounted for 14 of WPI's 30 bench points, including a pair of 3-pointers and led all players with four steals on the night.   Tim Reidy (Needham, MA) and Jack Bleier (Victor, NY) both chipped in with nine points, Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA) doled out a team-best five stats and J.R. Newman (Havertown, PA) stuffed the stat sheets with five points, eight rebounds and three assists. 

Curtiss Blische (Barkhamsted, CT) paced Springfield with 16 points, including 12 after intermission.  He was joined in double figure scoring by John Paulino (New Bedford, MA), who finished with 10 points to go along with six rebounds.  Josiah Evely (Toronto, ON) hauled in 11 rebounds, all defensive and led all players with six assists and Bray and Zeke Blauner (Dobbs Ferry, NY) both registered eight points. 

The Engineers held significant bulges in points off turnovers (14-6), points in the points (36-24) and fast break points (17-4).    

Both teams close out the NEWMAC regular season play on Saturday.   WPI heads to Norton to square off with the Lyons at 1pm while Springfield entertains Clark in a noontime affair.