Newport, RI --- Salve Regina scored 10 of the game's final 12 points as the host Seahawks rallied for a 77-73 victory over nationally-ranked WPI Tuesday evening in a matchup of men's basketball NEWMAC unbeatens Tuesday evening in the Rodgers Athletic Center.
 
The showdown features teams that entered the contest with identical overall records of 10-2 and perfect 3-0 conference marks and the visiting Engineers ranked 24th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25.  One of Salve's two losses this season was at Division I New Haven.
 
Trailing by four points with under three minutes remaining, Jack McMullen (East Greenwich, RI) connected on a 3-pointer to draw Salve Regina within a point at 71-70 with 2:37 to go.  That would remain the score until Zavier Francoeur (Canton, MA) banked home a 10-footer in the paint to put the Seahawks ahead 72-71 with 1:09 left.  Tim Reidy (Needham, MA) gave the Engineers their final lead of the even with 58.8 seconds to go when he nailed both ends of a 1-and-1.  WPI nearly forced a turnover on SRU's ensuing possession, but a loose ball was corralled by a Seahawk and quickly found its way to the left corner where Jack Margoupis (Sutton, MA) was open and drilled a trifecta to give the hosts a 74-72 edge with 28.8 left. 
 
The Engineers then missed a shot on the other end but grabbed an offensive rebound only to quickly turn the ball over to the Seahawks.  WPI was forced to foul with 6.7 seconds to go and Salve missed both free throws, but again the Crimson and Gray found themselves on the unlucky side of a bounce as an Engineer player retrieving the ball was off balance and could not stay upright before the Seahawks gathered the rock and Francoeur ended up closing out the win with a pair of free throws with 0.4 seconds left.
 
In a game that featured nine players reaching double figures in scoring, Margoupis led the way with 23 points.  McMullen accounted for 19 for the Seahawks, including five 3-pointers, Sean Seymour (Albany, NY) netted 14 and Pat Spenard (Rochester, MA) 10.  Francoeur was a point short of double digits with four of his nine coming in the final 69 seconds.
 
Nathan Bledsoe (San Antonio, TX) hit five trifectas on his way to a team-best 17 for WPI, while also sharing game-high assists honors with Justin Molen (Newark, DE) as handed out four helpers.  Nicholas Margetson (Baldwin, NY) added a season-best 15 points, Reidy finished with 13, Molen 11 and J.R. Newman (Havertown, MA) 10 to go along with a game-high six rebounds.  Matt Morvillo (Bedford, MA) helped the Crimson and Gray cause with five points and four boards.
 
Salve shot the ball at an impressive 55.6%, the highest allowed by the Engineers all season and over 12% higher than visitors (42.9%) while both teams did a good job of protecting the basketball, as the game featured just a combined 13 turnovers on the night.
 
The Engineers never trailed in the first half but only led by a point at the intermission.    Bledsoe canned all three of his 3-point attempts in the opening 4:46 as the visitors jumped out to a large lead to begin the contest similar to their two victories last week.  WPI hit on seven of its first nine shots from the field and led by double digits at 18-7 with 14:25 to go in the first half.  The Seahawks, buoyed by strong shooting themselves (17-of-28 - 60.7%) in the opening 20 minutes, clawed back to forge a 37-37 only to see another Bledsoe trifecta with 1:27 to go help WPI take a 40-39 advantage at the break.   Bledsoe notched 14 first half points while Margoupis notched 15 in the opening 20 minutes for the hosts.
 
Both teams are back at it again Thursday for the middle contest of a three-game week.  WPI heads to New London to face off with Coast Guard at 7pm while Salve ventures to Springfield for a noon matinee with the Pride.