Men's Basketball at No. 20 WPI
NEWMAC Tournament Final
Saturday, February 25 | 2 p.m.
Harrington Auditorium | Worcester, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 50-38 all-time against WPI in a series that dates back to the 1974-75 campaign.
• The Beavers have dropped six consecutive games to the Engineers since 2020.
• The Green and White is 5-4 over its last nine games inside Harrington Auditorium dating back to 2015.

POSTSEASON HISTORY
• Babson is 4-5 all-time in the conference playoffs and will meet for the third time since 2019 on Saturday afternoon.
• Despite combining for 19 title game appearances over the last 23 years – Babson (8) and WPI (11) – Saturday's contest marks the first time the Beavers and Engineers have hooked up in the NEWMAC Tournament final.
• The only championship game between the teams came in the Constitution Athletic Conference (CAC) as Scott Leip '93 scored 21 points and Matt Miller '93 added 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists to help Babson defeat WPI, 94-77, back on February 28, 1993.

LAST MEETING
• Junior Donovan Sevilla scored his only hoop of the game with 2.1 seconds to go lifting WPI to a 55-54 win over Babson on February 4 in Worcester.
• Senior John Lowther led all players with 22 points and sophomore Aidan Callahan added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Engineers, who trailed 52-47 with 2:14 remaining.
• Graduate student Ryan Cibull knocked down five three-pointers and scored 19 points, while senior Andrew Kirkpatrick and first-year Mark Woolhouse chipped in with 10 points apiece for the Beavers, who held the hosts to just 34.4 percent shooting.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Third-seeded Babson (18-8) has won 10 of its last 11 games picked up its first conference tournament victory since 2017 by defeating second-seeded Emerson, 69-64, on Thursday night in Boston.
• Kirkpatrick scored a career-high 27 points and added five rebounds, four assists and two blocks, while sophomore Nate Amado finished with 17 points and three blocks for the Beavers, who led by as many as 17 with under 12 minutes to play.
• Amado (17.1 pts, 6.6 reb) ranks fifth in the league in scoring but was held to just two points by WPI back in early February, Kirkpatrick (15.2 pts, 2.8 ast) has scored in double figures in 20 of the last 22 games and is shooting 50 percent over his last six outings, and Cibull (10.5 pts, 3.2 ast) has hit at least one three-pointer in 10 of his last 11 games.
• The Green and White ranks second in NEWMAC play in scoring defense (60.8 points), points allowed per possession (0.87) and forced turnovers (15.6).

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• No. 20 WPI (22-3) has won six consecutive games and reached its fifth consecutive NEWMAC final by rallying for a 72-56 win over fifth-seeded Clark on Thursday night.
• Lowther finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds and Callahan scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half as the Engineers erased an eight-point deficit by outscoring the Cougars 31-7 over the final 10:21.
• Lowther (14.6 pts, 7.0 reb) has scored in double figures in 11 straight games, Callahan (12.3 ps, 4.0 ast, 3.8 reb) leads the conference with 45 steals and junior John Adams (11.4 pts, 8.6 reb) is shooting 47.6 percent from the floor.
• Top-ranked WPI ranks first in NEWMAC play in scoring defense (55.4 points), points allowed per possession (0.82), rebounding margin (8.0) and field goal defense (37.1 percent).

WIN AND YOU'RE IN
• Babson, which dropped to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in NEWMAC play on January 14, is one victory away from securing its third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.
• The Beavers are currently sixth in the NCAA Region II rankings and must defeat the Engineers to find their way into the national tournament. WPI will be squarely on the bubble but is projected to make the tournament by some D3 bracketologists should they fall in Saturday's title game.

TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Amado is averaging 15.0 points in three career postseason games, while Kirkpatrick has put up 13.3 points on 48.7 percent shooting in four NEWMAC and NCAA Tournament contests over the last two seasons.

DIFFERENT ON DEFENSE
• After allowing 1.03 points per possession and watching its 11 non-conference foes to shoot 36.4 percent from three-pointer range, Babson has clamped down on defense since the start of league play in January.
• The Beavers have held 13 of their last 14 opponents to 64 points or less and have limited NEWMAC opponents to 32.6 percent from beyond the arc and just 7.3 offensive rebounds per game.
• Additionally, the Green and White is giving up just 0.86 points per possession in eight road games against conference foes this winter.

WOOLHOUSE CLAIMS FIRST WEEKLY HONOR
• After averaging 16.5 points on 73.7 percent shooting (14-of-19) in wins over Coast Guard and MIT, Woolhouse was chosen as the NEWMAC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.
• His 18-point performance in Saturday's win over MIT came on the heels of scoring a team-high 15 points in Wednesday's 87-58 rout of Coast Guard.

CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
• The Beavers, who have captured five conference championships (1992, 2002, 2004, 2015, 2016) under head coach Stephen Brennan, are making their eighth NEWMAC Tournament final appearance and first since 2017.
• The Green and White dropped the 2017 title game to MIT before going on to capture the program's first NCAA Division III championship, and are 5-2 all-time in the NEWMAC final.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 11-1 this season and have won 24 of their last 26 games when outrebounding their opponents.
• Babson is 12-1 on the year when allowing 63 points or fewer.
• The Beavers are 11-3 on the road against NEWMAC foes over the last two seasons, although two of the losses have come at WPI.
• The Green and White is 12-3 this winter when shooting 40 percent or better.
• Babson is 4-1 this season and 7-2 over the last two years in games decided by five points or less.