Babson 72, WPI 58

Box Score  

Babson Park, MA --- Babson used a suffocating defensive effort to force 22 turnovers en route to a 72-58 victory over visiting WPI in a NEWMAC men's basketball contest at Staake Gymnasium on Wednesday night. With the win, the Beavers improved to 9-9 overall and 2-4 in the conference, while the Engineers dropped to 14-4 and 3-3 in the NEWMAC. 

First-year Russell Braithwaite (Bronx, NY) and junior co-captain Matt Zoia (Nashua, NH) both had spectacular games for Babson. Braithwaite scored a career-high 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting while also pulling down five rebounds, and Zoia drained 4-of-7 from three-point range on his way to a 19-point night. First-year Alex Rudolph (Bal Harbour, FL) contributed nine points and eight rebounds, and sophomore Kris Noonan (Boothbay Harbor, ME) grabbed seven boards. Eight different Beavers recorded steals in the win, as they forced 22 WPI turnovers that led to 21 Babson points. 

WPI was led by junior Jeffrey Robinson (Granby, CT), who scored 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting, and sophomore Fernando Perez (Lowell, MA), who had a huge game in the paint with seven points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Juniors Kyle Nadeau (Webster, MA) and Ben Etten (Hollis, NH) each added five points and three assists for the Engineers, who were held to just 6-of-10 shooting from the free throw line compared to Babson's 17-of-29 clip at the other end. 

Babson never trailed in the contest, opening the game with an 8-0 run over the first three and a half minutes. The tenacious Beaver defense would hold WPI to just seven points for the first 13 minutes of play, as the hosts built a 19-7 advantage with under seven minutes remaining. Babson later led by as many as 13 with four minutes left, but WPI closed the half with an 8-2 run to trail by only seven (27-20) at the break. 

After a Perez lay-up cut WPI's deficit to five in the opening moments of the second half, Babson once again extended the lead to 12 with a 7-0 run that was sparked by a three-pointer from Zoia. The Engineers would make several pushes over the next 10 minutes, pulling to within four twice and then cutting it to just one after a Robinson trifecta made it 47-46 with 9:35 remaining. However, Babson answered with an 8-0 burst that was started by a huge put-back by Rudolph on a missed free throw and later capped by a thunderous breakaway jam by Braithwaite that gave the Beavers a 55-46 cushion with seven minutes left to play. 

Robinson sank a pair of free throws to trim the margin back to seven with 6:44 remaining, but Babson put the game out of reach with an 11-0 run that was punctuated by six straight points from Braithwaite as the Beavers ran away with the 72-58 victory.

Both teams return to action on Saturday with home conference contests.  WPI hosts nationaly ranked MIT while Babson entertains Coast Guard.

Release Courtesy Babson Sports Information