Lancers Bested Again by Cross-Town Rival Engineers

WORCESTER – The Worcester State men's basketball suffered their second loss of the year to WPI, 85-63 on Saturday afternoon at Brissette Court.

Worcester State (4-7) had 10 players net at least four points on the day, led by an 11-point, five rebound outing from Ryan Rubenskas (Bridgewater, MA). A pair of players in Corey Olivier (Maynard, MA) and Paul Roche (North Attleboro, MA) added eight from off the bench for the Lancers. 

Paced by a 20-point, seven rebound, six assist effort from Colin McNamara (Arlington, MA), the Engineers never trailed in the wire-to-wire victory, its fourth such effort of the season. McNamara was 9-of-12 from the field, including a 2-of-3 clip from deep. 

John Lowther (Hingham, MA) started things off with a jumper off of the opening possession and after the two teams traded buckets, WPI used a quick 7-0 run around the 10-minute mark of the first half behind a couple of jumpers from Lowther and a three from Kahleb Downing (Middletown, CT) to gain a 24-10 advantage. Worcester State got back into the game, but a couple of quick runs down the stretch helped the Engineers to a 43-28 halftime lead.  

The Engineers started the second half with a 13-2 run over the first four minutes of action, jumpstarted by a John Adams (Douglas, MA) layup off of a Worcester State turnover, but a Marcus McCarthy (East Providence, RI) three for the Lancers ended the skid with the Engineers up 56-33.  

Worcester State utilized a 5-0 run to get the deficit under 20 points, but WPI responded right away to build its lead right back up after a Brett Marelli (Hampton, NH) three, Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA) jumper, Marelli free throw, Ethan Rudometkin (Mililani, HI) jumper, and Andrew Lufkin (Auburn, NH) jumper which capped off a 10-2 run over a five-minute span to make it a 79-54 ballgame with just a couple of minutes to play.  

The Lancers rallied off three-straight buckets with time winding down, but it wasn't enough as WPI finished with the victory.  

Lowther finished with 15 points, four rebounds and three assists while Adams filled the stat sheet with 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks on 7-of-10 shooting.  

The Engineers shot 53.8 from the field, holding Worcester State to a 38.3 clip, though the Lancers made nine 3-pointers in the outing to WPI's five.  

The two teams each had 37 rebounds, though WPI dominated underneath tallying 46 points in the paint to WSU's 22 and added 19 fastbreak points to the Lancers' two.  

WPI is back in action next Saturday, Dec. 11 when they head to Bangor, Maine for a contest at Husson University at 1 PM. Worcester State will return to the court on Thursday, Dec. 9 at home against Emerson at 7 PM.