WORCESTER -- Tim Reidy (Needham, MA) poured in a game-high 25 points, including six in the final minute, as WPI defeated visiting Babson, 78-72, in a battle for first place in NEWMAC men's basketball action on Saturday afternoon inside Harrington Auditorium.
 
The win is a season-best five consecutive for the Engineers, who are receiving votes in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25, and moves the Crimson and Gray to 15-3 on the season and 8-1 in conference action.  WPI is now two games ahead of Babson and Clark (a 90-67 winner Saturday at MIT) atop the league standings while the Beavers saw their six-game winning streak snapped and now sits at 12-6 overall. 
 
The hosts led for most of the contest, and by as much as 17 points at 50-33 just three minutes into the second half but Babson battled back through the second half but appeared to be finally out of it when WPI's Nathan Bledsoe (San Antonio, TX) nailed a floater with 2:21 to go to put the Boynton Hillers up 70-61 but a pair of Thomas Ferdinando (Andover, MA) trifectas on back-to-back Babson possessions drew the Beavers back to with three at 70-67 with 64 ticks left.  
 
Reidy quickly countered with a driving layup coming out of a timeout, but Timmy Mulvey (Reading, MA) trimmed the deficit to two at 72-70 when he nailed a 3-pointer with 40.4 seconds left to go.  But two free throws each by J.R. Newman (Havertown, PA) and Reidy sandwich around a layup by Babson's Ferdinando had the Engineers up 76-72 before a Beaver turnover and subsequent Reidy layup in the final 10 seconds secured the victory for the Crimson and Gray.

Reidy was 9-of-13 from the field, including 4-for-8 from downtown.  The graduate student also doled out three assists and committed just one turnover in 37 minutes of action.    Bledsoe (17) and Jack Bleier (Victor, NY) (12) accounted for all 26 of WPI's bench points as the Engineer reserves outscored their Babson counterparts 29-15, and Newman dodged early foul trouble to finish with 10 points.  Junior Justin Molen (Newark, DE) pumped the stat sheets with nine points, a game-best eight assists, a team-leading six boards and a pair of steals.
 
Ferdinando tallied 12 of his 18 points in the second half to pace Babson while Timmy O'Toole (Milton, MA), who was also saddled with foul trouble, notched 15 points to go along with eight points and three steals and Mulvey and Ryan Frauenheim (Manasquan, NJ) each reached double figures in scoring with 11 points.
 
The Engineers were also ahead for a majority of the first half but found themselves trailing 26-23 with six minutes to go before halftime but hit eight straight shots from the field as part of a 20-7 spurt to close the half, including eight from Reidy and five by Bleier to take a 10-point bulge (43-33) into the locker room at the break.
 
WPI closes out a two-game NEWMAC homestand on Wednesday, hosting crosstown rival Clark at 7pm.   In a scheduling oddity, Babson returns to Worcester after its conference bye date to face the Cougars next Saturday at 4pm.