Worcester, Mass. - January 30, 2016 - The duo of Josh Altman (Rockport, Mass.) and Josh Downes (East Sandwich, Mass.) combined for 32 points to lead the Springfield College men's basketball team to a 56-51 win over nationally-ranked WPI on Saturday night in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action.

Springfield picks up a critical league win to improve to 8-11, 4-4 in conference play, while WPI, which was ranked 13th in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, drops to 16-3, 6-2.

Altman led Springfield with 17 points, all of which came in the second half, to go along with a team-best eight boards.  Downes added 15 points, and Andy McNulty (West Springfield, Mass.) produced eight points, five assists, and five caroms for the Pride, which shot 20-for-42 (47.6%) for the game.  Larry Piretra (Oakland, N.J.) grabbed seven rebounds to go along with six points, all on 3-pointers and Kevin Durkin (Worcester, Mass.) notched six points off the bench.  Springfield's defense was sensational in the win, holding the Engineers to a season low 51 points.

Altman, who was held scoreless in the first half, hit a jumper 13 seconds into the second stanza to put the Pride ahead for good.  Springfield scored seven of the opening eight points of the half and went ahead by as many as 14 just 7:18 into the half.  The hosts whittled the deficit to three at 50-47 on a Clyde Niba 3-pointer with just over three minutes left and then two on a Niba freebie a minute later.   Springfield quickly countered with a layup from McNulty with 1:49 and used four Downes' free throws in the final 16 seconds to secure the victory.

Niba paced all scorers with 22 points for the Engineers.  The senior accounted for nine of WPI's 20 field goals on the night.  Sean Doncaster (Medford, Mass.) reached double digits with 10 points while Obi Obiora (Boston, Mass.) and Ian Converse (Woodstock, Conn.) tossed in six points apiece.  Niba and Obiora both corralled eight boards while Jamani Spencer (Closter, N.J.) handed out five assists.

The first half featured four ties and three lead changes.  The two teams went into the locker room tied at 23-23 despite Springfield holding a 45.5% to 30.3% advantage in field goal shooting.  The Engineers were able to forge the deadlock by converting nine first half Springfield turnovers into eight points while the Pride were unable to convert any of WPI's four miscues into points.

The Pride will play again on Wednesday when it hosts MIT at 7:30 pm in another important NEWMAC contest.