WORCESTER -- Elijah Small (Astoria, NY) was one of six Clark players in double figures in scoring with a career-best 18 points as the Cougars went on the road and defeated nationally-ranked WPI 86-76 in a NEWMAC men's basketball contest played Wednesday evening in Harrington Auditorium.
 
The Cougars are 12-7 overall and 7-3 in conference play while WPI, ranked 23rd in the latest, D3hoops.com Top 25, drops to 15-3 on the season 8-2 in conference play.  The Engineers enjoy a one game lead over Clark with six games to play, with Babson (idle) and Salve Regina (77-74 winner over Emerson) both a game and a half back.
 
WPI struggled out of game, not connecting on a single basket on its first 10 possessions (0-9 from the floor with four turnovers to start game) and found themselves down 12-2 eight minutes in but quickly changed their fortunes as Nathan Bledsoe (San Antonio, TX) accounted for 12 points as the Engineers drained 10-of-14 shots over the next 7:40 to surge ahead 26-23.   The hosts were ahead 33-27 with 2:40 to go before the half but seven points by Quentin Pridgen (Fitchburg, MA) help the Cougars take a 37-35 advantage into the locker room at the break.
 
The Cougars continued to their game-changing spurt to opening the second half, rattling off nine straights points with buckets from four different played to go up 48-35.  The margin ballooned to 16 at 61-45 with 11:46 to go and the Engineers still trailed by double digits with under five minutes to go before making one final push, outscoring Clark 9-2 to get back to within four at 78-74 with 50.2 seconds remaining but a breakaway layup following near steal and six straight Cougar free throws in the final 40 seconds secured the victory for the visitors.
 
Small, whose previous career-high was eight points back in December in a loss to Nichols, was 8-of-9 from the field to go along with six rebounds.  Pridgen paced Clark in points (19), rebounds (12) and assists en route to his second double-double of the season and eighth of his career.  Reid Neumann (Burbank, CA) totaled 13 points for the Cougars, Kyle Squires (Kingston, MA) added 11, and Malik Matanmi (Pawtucket, RI) chipped in with 10 points and corralled eight boards.
 
Bledsoe amassed a team-high 26 points for the Crimson and Gray on 9-of-16 shooting from the floor.  J.R. Newman (Havertown, PA) totaled 14 points while Tim Reidy (Needham, MA) collected 13 and Justin Molen (Newark, DE) registered 12 and snatched eight rebounds.  Senior Adam Patterson (New York, NY) gave the Engineers a spark off the bench, tallying a career-high eight points, all in the second half.  As a team, the hosts struggled from downtown, connecting on just 5-of-20 3-pointers, including just 1-for-12 in the second half but as a team, was a perfect 21-of-21 from the free throw line.
 
WPI has its second and final NEWMAC bye this weekend and is back on the court a week from tonight - Wednesday, February 4th - for a 7pm tipoff at Springfield.  Clark heads home for a 4pm matchup with Babson on Saturday.