WORCESTER -- Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA) and Tim Reidy (Needham, MA) combined for 34 points en route to a hard-fought 79-60 victory over Fitchburg State on Tuesday night in Harrington Auditorium.

The Crimson and Gray, who are ranked 20th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25, are now 6-0 season while Fitchburg State falls to 0-8 overall.  The WPI senior class of Callahan, Reidy, Brett Marelli (Hampton, NH) and Will Barton (Meriden, CT) are now an impressive 22-1 in games played before Thanksgiving, including 18 straight going back to their rookie season of 2021-22.

The first half was full of runs, switching off between the two teams. The Engineers dented the scoreboard first with a trey by Callahan, but the Falcons took initiative and saw a 9-0 run to begin the game, led by Nathaniel Semedo (Bridgewater, MA) with five points, bringing the score to 9-3 at 16:40. For the next 5:19, no field goals were scored, only five points were tallied by WPI off free throws sparked a 16-2 WPI spurt, spearheaded by Callahan and Reidy who accounted for 13 of the 16 points. During this run, the Engineer defense held Fitchburg State to just 1-of-12 shooting from the floor with four turnovers, lifting the hosts to lead by 19-11 with 9:40 remaining.

The Falcons fought to regain the advantage, which ignited a 12-3 run, led by Jalen Jackson (San Antonio, TX) accumulating seven points, bringing the game score to 23-22 in favor of Fitchburg State.  The hosts ended the half by scoring 15 of the stanza's last 19 points to take a 37-27 advantage into the intermission.  For the first half, WPI's Callahan tallied 10 points, four assists and a steal. Reidy also accounted for 10 points and added on one rebound. For Fitchburg State, Matthew Drayton (Boston, MA) accumulated nine points and two assists, with Jackson adding on seven points and five boards.

To start the second stanza, a lot of back-and-forth action occurred. Callahan tacked on seven points for the Boynton Hillers while four different Falcons added points to lift the game score to 48-40 in favor of the host with just over 13 minutes left. The Engineers saw a 10-2 run ending with back-to-back driving layups by Jack Bleier (Victor, NY) to gain a 16-point lead, the largest gap of either team at that point. 

The Crimson and Gray slowly started to pull away, taking the lead by 20 after a Reidy trey, with five minutes to play. The game concluded at 77-60 in favor of the hosts.

On the game, WPI notched 46.9% (30-of-64) shooting on field goals attempt with 13 fast break, and 44 points in the paint. Fitchburg State made 22-of-61 (36.1%) shots with six second chance points.

For WPI, Callahan stuffed the stat sheet with 19 points, four assists, three rebound and added a block as gravy. Reidy added 15 points, Nicholas Margetson (Baldwin, NY) accounted for 10 points, and Justin Molen (Newark, DE) gobbled up eight boards and doled out a new career high of five assists. For the Falcons, Jackson earned a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Drayton accumulated a game-high 20 points and two assists, and Semedo added 15 points and two steals.

Following the Thanksgiving holiday, WPI travels to No.8 Tufts this Saturday for a 3pm meeting of nationally ranked squads. Fitchburg State is back in action a week from today, visiting Lesley for a 6pm matchup on Tuesday.

Recap Written by WPI Sports Information Student Assistant Maya Vartabedian '24 '25