WORCESTER, Mass.—Senior Dominic Sevilla (San Ramon, Calif.) scored 15 points and classmate John Adams (Douglas, Mass.) posted a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds to help No. 17 WPI defeat visiting Babson College, 61-49, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's basketball action on Saturday afternoon inside Harrington Auditorium. 

Babson, which has dropped two of its last three games, drops to 5-4 overall and 1-1 in league play. WPI has won two straight contests to improve to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in the NEWMAC. 

Graduate student Steph Baxter (Worcester, Mass.) led all players with 16 points and five assists to pace three players in double figures for the Beavers, who played without their leading scorer, junior Nate Amado (Hanson, Mass.). Junior Aidan Horan (Orchard Park, N.Y.) finished with 11 points and sophomore Timmy O'Toole (Milton, Mass.) chipped in with 10 points, five boards and two blocks in the loss. 

Junior Aidan Callahan (Rowley, Mass.) scored 10 points and dished out five assists for the Engineers, who got at least six points from six different players in the win.

The Green and White led 8-5 after a jumper by sophomore Jeremiah Paul (Los Angeles, Calif.) with 14:22 to go in the first half before WPI went on a 14-2 run that included points from five different players to forge a 19-10 advantage on a bucket in the paint by Adams with 6:47 remaining in the stanza. Horan canned a pair of three-pointers over the final five minutes of the period but junior Tim Reidy (Needham, Mass.) answered with his second tripled of the game with 16 seconds left to keep the Engineers in front 26-16 at the break. 

The Beavers got a jumper from O'Toole and a three-pointer by senior John Gorgol (Scottsdale, Ariz.) to cut their deficit to 28-23 just over three minutes into the second half. O'Toole answered a jumper by Callahan and Paul responded to a three-point play by Sevilla with a trifecta to get Babson as close as 33-29 with 14:37 remaining. 

Horan stopped a field goal drought of nearly five minutes with a three-pointer to trim the Engineers' lead to 39-33, but Sevilla followed back-to-back hoops by Adams to push the margin back to 48-37 with 7:38 to play. Adams beat the shot clock with a jumper just over a minute later and Sevilla scored in transition to give WPI its largest lead of the afternoon at 53-39 with 4:59 remaining. 

The Beavers shot a season-low 34 percent from the floor out were outrebounded 40-32 in the loss. The Engineers shot 48 percent in the second half and 41.5 percent for the game in addition to outscoring the visitors 26-18 in the paint. 

Both teams return to action on December 29 as Babson faces Wisconsin-Stout at 6 p.m. EST in Oshkosh, Wis., while WPI hosts Gettysburg at 5 p.m. 

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are 51-39 all-time against WPI but have dropped six of the last seven games between the teams. 
•    Babson, which had scored at least 70 points in seven of its first eight games, was held to its lowest output since a 61-49 loss to WPI on January 11 of last season. 
•    Saturday's setback snapped the Beavers' seven-game winning streak against NEWMAC foes. 
•    Baxter has scored at least 16 points in seven consecutive games going back to November 17.