Box Score Worcester, Mass. - January 7, 2015 -The Springfield College men's basketball team had its four-game winning streak snapped as it fell to nationally-ranked WPI, 73-53, in both squads New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) opener on Wednesday evening.
Josh Downes (East Sandwich, Mass.) led all scorers with a career-best 20 points in the loss as he went 9-for-11 from the field. Sean Martin (Rindge, N.H.) added 13 points, five boards, and three steals on the night.
Freshman Aaron Todd (York, Maine) headlined four Engineers in double figures in scoring with a career-best 10 points to pace the WPI attack.
The hosts Engineers, seventh in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25, have now won eight straight and are 11-1 on the season while the Pride fall to 8-4 overall and 0-1 in NEWMAC play.
WPI led 4-0 a minute into the game on a Domenick Mastascusa (North Reading, Mass.) free throw and a Sean Doncaster (Medford, Mass.) 3-pointer and would not relinquish the lead the rest of the game. The Engineers paid particularly good attention to the ball in the opening 20 minutes, only committing three turnovers en route to a 41-28 halftime advantage. The Crimson and Gray reserves enjoyed a 17-0 bulge in bench scoring behind the hot-shooting of Zach Karalis (North Andover, Mass.) and Todd.
Downes and Martine combined to total 23 of the Pride's 28 first half points. The duo shot 9-of-12 (75.0%) from the field while the rest of the guests combined to connect on just 2-of-15 (13.3%).
Springfield opened the second half with a pair steals from Martin and layups from Josh Altman (Rockport, Mass.) and Downes to slice the edge back to single digits at 41-32 but WPI quickly countered with a 3-pointer by Longwell and a layup by point guard Aaron Davis (Marshfield, Mass.) to push the margin back to double figures for good.
Karalis ended the night with a team-best 14 points, including three trifecta and a conventional 3-point play. Doncaster (13) and Mastascusa (12) also joined Todd in double figures while Longwell narrowly missed with nine points, but did lead all players 11 rebounds and six assists while committing just one turnover. Doncaster also chipped in with four assists and Mastascusa shared game-high steal honors with Martin with three swipes.
Larry Piretra (Oakland, N.J.) and Tim Swenson (Millbury, Mass.) combined for 11 rebounds despite both being saddled with foul trouble.
For the game, the two teams were nearly identical in points in the paint (35-34 WPI), however, the hosts enjoyed a 37-28 edge on the glass and parlayed 15 offensive rebounds into a 21-6 advantage in second chance points.
Springfield will play another nationally-ranked team this Saturday when it hosts No. 15 Babson at 2:00 pm in Blake Arena.
