Springfield, Mass. – February 4, 2026 – Despite a valiant effort against the top team in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), the Springfield College men's basketball team fell to WPI, 66-54, on Wednesday night in Blake Arena.

WPI, which was receiving votes in this week's D3hoops.com national poll and 27th in the latest iteration of the NCAA Power Index, improved to 16-4 overall and to 9-2 in NEWMAC play, while Springfield dropped to 8-13, 6-6.

Nine of the ten student-athletes that found time on the court tonight scored at least two points for Springfield. The Pride were led by Zachary Campbell (Philadelphia, Pa.), who notched ten points. John Paulino (New Bedford, Mass.) stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, five rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal, while Josh Hartley (Brooklyn, N.Y.) recorded a team-best six boards. Justin Molen led the visiting Engineers with 14 points.

With the win for WPI, the Engineers completed the season sweep of Springfield for the sixth consecutive season.

A slow start for both teams led the score even at five just over five minutes into the contest as Springfield and WPI combined to hit just a combined four of the first 15 shots of the game. The Pride took its first lead of the game at 8-7 following a free throw from Ajay Lopes (Wareham, Mass.) with 12:55 remaining in the first. A layup from Hartley with seven minutes left in the first tied the score at 16, but a layup from Jack Bleier and a dunk in transition by Oliver Hibbard made it 20-16 and forced a timeout from Springfield.

Springfield went on to outscore WPI by a 11-9 margin highlighted by a pair of three's by Xoren Livingston (Wayland, Mass.), but a Tim Reidy trey gave the visiting Engineers a 29-27 edge at halftime.

Nathan Bledsoe buried an early second half three for WPI putting the Engineers up 37-33, but a jumper by Josiah Evely (Toronto, Ontario) ignited a 10-3 run for the homestanding Pride that was highlighted by layups from Hartley and Paulino in transition pushing Springfield ahead 41-37. 

A layup from Campbell knotted the score at 44, but Justin Molen drove in for a layup off the hands of Bleier which gave WPI a 46-44 edge – a lead the visitors wouldn't relinquish for the remainder of the contest. WPI built small five point edge after JR Newman knocked down a pair of shots from the charity stripe before a Molen trey just four minutes later ignited a run of nine straight points for WPI extending the lead to 12 at 62-50 with less than three minutes to play. WPI went on to take the game by a 66-54 final.

Springfield will travel to Babson College for a conference tilt on Saturday at 1:00 pm.

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