Men's Basketball at Emerson
Wednesday, January 4 | 5 p.m.
Brown-Plofker Gymnaisum | Boston, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 29-4 all-time against Emerson in a series that dates back to the 1951-52 campaign.
• The Beavers have won 17 of their last 19 games against the Lions, which includes a sweep of last year's regular season series before suffering an OT loss in the NEWMAC semifinals.
• Six of the last nine games between the teams have been decided by eight points or less and two of last year's three meetings went to overtime.

LAST MEETING
• Sophomore Trevor Arico sent the game to overtime with a buzzer-beating three-pointer and scored all of his career-high 14 points in the second half and OT as third-seeded Emerson defeated the second-seeded Beavers, 85-77, in a NEWMAC Tournament semifinal on February 24, 2021, in Babson Park.
• Colin Bradanese '22 scored 18 points and junior Kieran Dorney added 17 points and 16 rebounds to lead four players in double figures for the Beavers, who led by as many as 16 early in the second half.
• Zach Waterhouse poured in 28 points and graduate student Jared Houston finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Lions, who erased a five-point deficit over the final 21 seconds of regulation.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (7-4, 0-0 NEWMAC) enters league play having won five of its last seven games but is coming off a 73-64 loss at Chicago on Saturday.
• Graduate student Ryan Cibull scored a season-high 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting and senior Andrew Kirkpatrick added 13 points for the Beavers, who were outscored by the Maroons 21-12 over the final 7:44.
• Sophomore Nate Amado (20.7 pts, 7.5 reb) is shooting 48.2 percent and ranks first in the NEWMAC in scoring, Kirkpatrick (14.7 pts, 3.6 ast) has scored in double figures in seven consecutive games, and Cibull (7.4 pts, 2.5 ast) is shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.
• The Green and White is forcing 16.4 turnovers and has pulled down 11 or more offensive rebounds in nine of its first 11 games.

SCOUTING THE LIONS
• Emerson (5-6, 0-0) has dropped its last three games and is coming off a 62-54 loss at No. 6 Keene State on Friday.
• Houston finished with 14 points, 20 rebounds, six blocks and five assists and Brendan McNamara added 11 points for the Lions, who led 29-28 at halftime.
• Houston (19.6 pts, 13.1 reb, 4.8 blocks) is shooting 63.7 percent and leads Division III in blocked shots and ranks second in the country with 10 double-doubles, graduate student Nate Martin (13.5 pts, 3.4 reb) has scored in double figures eight times in 11 starts, and senior James Beckwith is averaging 10.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists.
• Emerson, which commits just 11.9 turnovers per game, has suffered four losses by six points or less.

CIBULL NAMED NEWMAC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• Cibull, who averaged 17.0 points in road games against Hope and Chicago last week while going 6-of-8 from three-point range, was tabbed as the conference's offensive player of the week on Tuesday morning. 
• In three games since December 8, he is putting up 14.7 points and shooting 76.2 percent (16-of-21) from the floor and 77.8 (7-of-9) from long distance.

QUALITY ROAD TRIP
• First-year Mark Woolhouse scored a career-high 12 points in last Thursday's 83-60 win at Hope and averaged 9.5 points and 5.5 rebounds during the Beavers' two-game Midwest swing.
• Junior John Gorgol scored a season-high 10 points in Saturday's loss at Chicago and averaged 8.0 points and 5.5 boards against the Maroons and Flying Dutchmen.

POLL POSITION
• The Beavers, who finished second in the regular season standings last season, were picked to finish as the runner-up behind WPI when the NEWMAC released its preseason coaches poll back in October.
• Emerson, which joined Babson and the Engineers in the NCAA Tournament last season, were picked to finish third in the coaches' poll.

CONFERENCE SUCCESS
• The Beavers finished 11-2 in league play last year with their lone regular season losses coming against WPI.
• Babson has won at least 10 conference games in seven of the last eight seasons dating back to 2014 and has finished first three times (2015-17), second on three occasions (2014, 2018, 2022) and third twice (2019, 2020) during this stretch.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson went 5-1 in NEWMAC road games last season and has won nine of its last 12 contests on the road against league foes dating back to 2020.
• The Beavers are 5-0 this season and 38-2 going back to the start of 2019-20 when outrebounding their opponents.
• Babson is 6-2 this year when scoring at least 70 points and 7-1 when holding its opponents to 76 points or fewer.
• The winning team has scored at least 78 points in 13 of the last 14 meetings between Babson and Emerson going back to 2016.
• The Beavers are 5-1 this season and 12-2 since the start of last year when forcing 16 or more turnovers.

UP NEXT
• Babson travels to Springfield on Saturday at 1 p.m.