Fitchburg, MA --- Nathan Bledsoe (San Antonio, TX) drained six first half 3-pointers on his way to establishing a new career-high in scoring as the nationally-ranked WPI made the trip up I-190 North on Tuesday evening and handed host Fitchburg State its first lost on the season, 85-65, in a non-conference men's basketball contest inside Parkinson Gymnasium .

WPI, ranked 19th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25, moves to 5-1 headed to the Thanksgiving break while the Falcons suffered their first loss of the 2025-26 campaign and also now 5-1.
 
Bledsoe, who finished with a game-high 26 points, connected on 6-of-7 3-pointers and all three of his free throws attempts in the opening 20 minutes as WPI raced out a 26-9 lead to start the game.  The hosts clawed back to within four at 29-25 on a Jeremiah Simeon (Norwalk, CT) with 2:58 to before the half to cap a 16-3 spurt but the Engineers closed out the stanza highlighted by a Bledsoe trifecta and a four-point play.
 
The Engineers outscored the hosts 47-38 after intermission and never saw their advantage trimmed to single digits in the second half.   WPI shots 60.9% (14-of-23) from the floor after halftime and forced 10 Falcon turnovers in the second half

Justin Molen (Newark, NJ) also put up solid numbers for WPI, amassing 18 points and a team-best eight rebounds, while Jack Bleier (Victor, NY) provided a boost off the bench for the Engineers, finishing a perfect 4-for-4 from the field to net 11 points in 16 minutes of action.  J.R. Newman (Havertown, PA) stuffed the stat sheets with nine points, five boards, all on the defensive glass, and a game-high five assists while Matt Morvillo (Bedford, MA) gobbled up six rebounds and doled out three assists and Nicholas Margetson (Baldwin, NY) handed out four assists.
 
Jalen Jackson (San Antonio, TX) led the way again for Fitchburg.  The junior finished with 17 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Xavier Smaltz (Allentown, PA) played well for the Falcons, scoring 14 points.
 
After over a week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, WPI, four-time defending NEWMAC regular season champion, opens defense of its title on Wednesday, December 3rd with a 6pm road game at Babson, which is receiving votes in the D3hoops.com Top 25.  Fitchburg State returns to action on Sunday, traveling to Colby-Sawyer for a 3pm matchup.