WORCESTER -- Brett Marelli (Hampton, NH) posted his first career double-double and Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA) tallied a game-best 26 points as nationally-ranked WPI opened the NEWMAC portion of its schedule with a 86-65 victory over Salve Regina on Tuesday evening inside Harrington Auditorium.
 
The Engineers, who rose nine spots to 11th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25, move to 8-0 overall for just the fifth time program history joining the 2004-05, 2005-06, 2012-13 and 2018-19 squads and WPI is now 1-0 in conference action while Salve Regina dips to 3-5 on the season and 0-1 in NEWMAC play.
 
Marelli accounted for 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, including seven off the offensive glass, and added three assists and a pair of blocks.  Callahan's 26 points came on 10-of-16 shooting from the floor, including a 3-pointer, and a 5-for-6 performance from the free throw line.  The senior point guard led all players by doling out seven assists on the night.  Tim Reidy (Needham, MA) drained five 3-pointers on his way to 18 points, Nicholas Margetson (Baldwin, NY) netted 12 of his 13 points in the first half, and finished a rebound short of a double-double himself with nine caroms and a career best five assists.
 
Pat Spenard (Rochester, MA) earned a double-double with a team-high 20 points and 12 boards. Jojo Powers (Dedham, MA) stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, five caroms, three assists, two steals and a block, and Sean Seymour (Albany, NY) added 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.
 
The contest was back-and-forth through the first 10 minutes with six lead changes and three ties before WPI embarked upon a 12-0 run to transform a three-point to a nine-point advantage at 25-16 with 6:35 to go before intermission.  The Seahawks scored nine of the last 11 points to forge the final tie of the contest before WPI closed out the half with a 12-5 spurt to take a 39-32 lead into the break.  Callahan and Margetson each netted 12 points to account for 24 of WPI's 39 first half points on 51.6% shooting from the floor.
 
Reidy tallied a trio of shots from downtown in the second half, including a rare four-point play to put the Crimson and Gray up 19 at 63-44 midway through the stanza.   For the game, the hosts drained 11-of-32 (34.4%) 3-pointers while limiting the Seahawks to just 5-of-23 (21.7%) from downtown.   The guests did hit 75.0% of its free throws (18-of-24) while WPI drained just 11-of-18 (61.1%).   The Engineers handed out 20 assists on the night on 32 made field goals while only committing nine turnovers.
 
Both squads are on the road for a 1pm matchups on Saturday. No. 11 WPI competes against Babson and Salve Regina tangles with Clark.