BOX SCORE
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Alex Rudolph led the
way with 22 points and Babson connected on nearly 52% of its shots
to hand the nationally-ranked MIT men's basketball team a
73-56 loss in New England Women's and Men's Athletic
Conference (NEWMAC) play Saturday afternoon at Rockwell Cage.
Four Engineers finished in double-figures but it was not enough
to avoid a third loss in four games for Tech (10-4 overall, 0-1
NEWMAC), ranked 19th in the country by D3hoops.com. Meanwhile, the
Beavers improve to 6-7 overall and even their conference ledger at
1-1.
A Will Tashman layup to open the second half scoring cut the MIT
deficit to just five but Babson responded with five straight points
to build a 38-28 lead less than a minute into the second stanza.
Back-to-back buckets by Nick Davis later in the frame brought the
Cardinal and Gray within four. From there the Engineers would see
their visitors reel off 13 of the next 16 points over a 6:27
stretch to open up a 14-point advantage.
A traditional three-point play by Kris Noonan
started the spurt and Matt Zoia capped it with
consecutive trifectas, the second of which put Babson on top 53-39
with 8:03 to go. Tech would get as close as eight on a few
occasions down the stretch but could not cut into the Babson lead
any more than that, dropping its conference opener for the first
time since the 2006-07 season.
Nick Davis and Jamie Karraker topped the scoring column for the
Cardinal and Gray with 12 apiece. Mitchell Kates scored 11 points
while adding seven boards and six assists. Tashman also finished
with 11 for Tech.
Rudolph made four-of-seven from behind the arc on the way to his
22 points. Noonan had six rebounds to go along with 17 points.
Peter Foley led the Beavers on the glass with nine
caroms.
The Engineers will look for their first league win on Wednesday,
January 12 when they travel to WPI for a 7:00 p.m. game. Babson
hosts Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.
NOTE: Taken from an MIT press release.
