Men's Basketball vs. Lasell
Wednesday, November 8 | 7 p.m. 
Staake Gymnasium | Babson Park, Mass. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    Babson and Lasell will meet to open the season for the third time in the last six seasons on Wednesday night in Babson Park. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 18-3 all-time against Lasell in a series that dates back to 1998.
•    The Beavers have won 11 consecutive games over the Lasers although nine of the previous 21 contests between the teams have been decided by five points or less. 
•    The Green and White has won its last six games against Lasell inside Staake Gymnasium since 2014, which includes a three-point victory back in 2021. 

LAST MEETING
•    Junior Nate Amado poured in 25 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, while Andrew Kirkpatrick '23 added 23 points and four steals to help Babson defeat Lasell, 76-65, on November 9, 2022, in Newton, Mass. 
•    Sophomore Timmy O'Toole contributed eight points, nine boards and five steals in his collegiate debut and classmate Mark Woolhouse came off the bench to score eight points for the Beavers, who opened the second half with an 11-0 run to take the lead for good.
•    EJ Day scored 29 points and Gabe Qua chipped in with nine points and 10 rebounds to pace the Lasers, who shot just 30.4 percent after halftime. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Babson (0-0) graduated three of its top four scorers but returns nine players from a team that went 19-9 and made its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance after capturing a NEWMAC Tournament championship. 
•    Amado, who missed nearly all of January due to injury, averaged a team-high 17.5 points on 46.2 percent shooting to go along with 6.5 rebounds, while senior John Gorgol was averaging 6.4 points on 47.5 percent shooting and 4.6 rebounds before suffering a season-ending injury midway through the year. 
•    O'Toole (5.7 pts, 6.7 reb, 1.7 stl) led the team in rebounding and steals, Woolhouse contributed 5.3 points and 3.7 boards as a rookie and junior Aidan Horan chipped in with 4.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 23 games off the bench for the Beavers. 
•    The Green and White finished the 2022-23 campaign ranked 28th in Division III in scoring defense allowing 64.2 points per game and held 14 of its last 16 opponents to 64 points or less. 

SCOUTING THE LASERS 
•    Lasell (0-0) must replace All-American EJ Day but brings back to players from a team that finished 12-13 last year. 
•    Quinton Partee Jr. averaged 11.8 points on 54.3 percent shooting to go along with a team-high 7.0 rebounds, while Conan McCusker (8.7 pts, 2.1 reb) knocked down 54 three-pointers and shot 39.4 percent from beyond the arc. 
•    Demerrick Warren averaged 7.5 points and 3.9 boards in 22 games and Marcus Lewis (5.2 pts, 2.3 reb) shot 50.6 percent while starting nine times in 19 appearances. 
•    Lasell, which averaged 74.5 points and made more than eight three-pointers per game last winter, were picked to finish eighth in the GNAC preseason poll. 

POLL POSITION
•    Babson, which captured its first NEWMAC Tournament championship since 2016 with a 59-53 win over WPI last February, was picked to finish second behind the Engineers when the league released its preseason coaches' poll back in October. 
•    WPI collected five first-place votes to finish atop the poll with 60 points, the Beavers earned three-place votes and totaled 58 points and Clark came in third with 52 points after claiming the final first-place vote. 
•    The Green and White is also one of 30 programs to receive votes in the D3hoops.com preseason poll. 

VETERAN ADDITION
•    Babson continued to add to its roster through the transfer portal with the addition of graduate student Steph Baxter, who concluded his career at Bates last winter. 
•    Baxter averaged 16.9 points and career highs of 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists as a senior for the Bobcats last winter. 
•    In three seasons at Bates, he scored 1,045 points and averaged 15.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists while shooting 41.9 percent from the floor. 

OPENING ACT
•    The Beavers have opened the season with a victory in 14 of the last 15 seasons going back to 2008. 
•    The lone loss during this stretch was an 85-80 OT setback at Johnson & Wales back in 2018. 

DEAN OF NEWMAC COACHES
•    Head coach Stephen Brennan enters his 29th season at Babson with 466 wins, which ranks first among NEWMAC coaches and 14th among active Division III head coaches. 
•    The 2017 NABC Coach of the Year, Brennan led the Beavers to 11 wins over their final 13 games to help the program capture its third NEWMAC Tournament championship since 2015 and a third straight NCAA Tournament berth. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    Babson went 8-2 last season and is 24-6 inside Staake Gymnasium going back to 2021. 
•    The Beavers were 11-2 last winter when forcing 16 or more turnovers. 
•    The Green and White are 45-3 since the start of the 2019-20 campaign when outrebounding its opponents. 
•    Babson went 16-3 last year when holding its foes below 70 points. 

UP NEXT
•    The Beavers head to New Haven, Conn., to take on Albertus Magnus on Saturday at 3 p.m.