Men's Basketball at Springfield
Saturday, January 7 | 1 p.m.
Blake Arena | Springfield, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 27-42 all-time against Springfield in a series that dates back to the 1976-77 campaign.
• The Beavers have won 13 of their last 18 games against the Pride, which includes sweeping last season's regular season matchups.
• The Green and White has been victorious in seven of its last nine trips to Blake Arena.

LAST MEETING
• Junior Kieran Dorney led all players with 21 points and 10 rebounds to help Babson defeat the Pride, 96-71, on February 9, 2022, in Springfield, Mass.
• James Welch '22 finished with 17 points, Mitchell Kirsch M'22 added 16 points and Colin Bradanese chipped in with 10 points and eight boards for the Beavers, who knocked down 18 three-pointers and shot 54.5 percent from beyond the arc.
• Jacob Morales scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while Collin Lindsay had 12 points in the loss for Springfield.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (7-5, 0-1 NEWMAC) has dropped two straight games and suffered a 79-70 loss at Emerson in its conference opener on Wednesday.
• Graduate student Ryan Cibull matched his season high with 21 points, senior Andrew Kirkpatrick scored 16 points and classmate Aaron Gao added 11 points for the Beavers, who led 40-38 at halftime.
• Sophomore Nate Amado (20.7 pts, 7.5 reb) leads the NEWMAC in scoring but has missed the last two games, Kirkpatrick (14.8 pts, 3.5 ast) has scored in double figures in eight straight contests, and Cibull (8.5 pts, 2.3 ast) is shooting 47.4 percent from the floor.
• The Green and White ranks third in the league in offensive efficiency averaging 1.02 points per possession and is second in the conference in steals per game (9.6).

SCOUTING THE PRIDE
• Springfield (3-9, 0-1 NEWMAC) is coming off a 76-48 loss at No. 16 WPI in its league opener on Wednesday night.
• First-year John Paulino finished with 11 points, six rebounds and two assists and sophomore Curtiss Blische and senior Daryl Costa both added 10 points for the Pride, which shot 35.7 percent and committed 18 turnovers.
• Junior Zeke Blauner (9.1 pts, 1.9 steals) leads the team in scoring and steals, Blische (8.8 pts, 5.8 reb) is shooting 55.4 percent and Josiah Evely is averaging 8.0 points and 3.8 rebounds.
• Springfield, which is shooting just 38.3 percent on the year, is 3-1 on the year when scoring at least 70 points.

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.
• Over his last four games dating back to December 8, he is averaging 16.3 points while shooting 70.6 percent (24-of-34) from the floor and 7-of-10 from beyond the arc.

PICKING UP THE SCORING SLACK
• Gao is averaging 9.5 points on 53.3 percent shooting over the last four games, while junior John Gorgol is contributing 8.0 points on 57.9 percent shooting over the same stretch.
• First-year Mark Woolhouse also has averaged 8.7 points over the last three games and is 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) from beyond the arc.

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.
• Springfield was picked to finish eighth.

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
• The Beavers are 6-3 this season when scoring at least 70 points and 5-0 when holding their opponents to 69 points or fewer.
• Six of Babson's seven wins have come by at least 11 points.
• The Green and White is 5-2 this season when shooting 40 percent or better from the field.
• The Beavers are 5-1 this season and have won 12 of 14 games going back to the start of last season when forcing 16 or more turnovers.

UP NEXT
• Babson hosts No. 16 on WPI on Wednesday at 7 p.m.