Men's Basketball at Clark
NEWMAC Tournament Final
Saturday, February 24 | 1 p.m. 
Kneller Athletic Center | Worcester, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 41-40 all-time against Clark in a series that dates back to the 1934-35 campaign. 
•    The Beavers have won six of their last seven and are 17-2 against the Cougars over the last decade. 
•    Five of the last six games between Babson and Clark in Worcester have been decided by four points or less. 
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Saturday's matchup is the first since 2013 and just the fifth all-time between Babson and Clark in the conference playoffs. 
•    The Beavers suffered a 77-57 loss in the 2001 NEWMAC final and a 84-76 OT setback in the 2003 championship game, both of which were played in Worcester. 
•    Babson's lone postseason victory over Clark came in the 2013 quarterfinals when it defeated the Cougars, 52-34, in Worcester. 

LAST MEETING
•    Graduate student Steph Baxter scored 22 points and Babson built a 16-point second-half lead before holding off a late Clark rally to win 71-68 on January 27 in Worcester, Mass. 
•    Sophomore Jeremiah Paul scored a career-high 14 points and junior Aidan Horan added 13 points for the Beavers, who shot 55.6 percent in the second half and led 62-46 with less than nine minutes to play. 
•    Bruce Saintilus and Isaiah Taylor both scored 15 points as all five starters reached double figures for the Cougars, who missed a potential game-tying three-pointer from the left corner at the buzzer. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Fourth-seeded Babson (14-13) advanced to its second consecutive NEWMAC final with a 73-57 win over top-seeded WPI on Thursday night. 
•    Baxter poured in 36 points on 13-of-25 shooting, junior Nate Amado finished with 15 points and seven rebounds and sophomore Timmy O'Toole added 11 points and two blocked shots for the Beavers, who used a 24-7 second-half run to pull away from the Engineers. 
•    Amado (20.0 pts, 6.7 reb, 2.1 ast) ranks first in the league in scoring and fifth in rebounding while shooting 46 percent, Baxter (19.2 pts, 3.8 reb, 3.0 ast) is second in the NEWMAC in scoring and seventh in assists and O'Toole (8.1 pts, 8.6 reb) ranks third in the conference in rebounding. 
•    The Green and White ranks first in conference play in offensive rebounds per game (12.8) and is second in both scoring defense (65.6 points) and three-point defense holding its foes to just 29.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc. 

SCOUTING THE COUGARS
•    Second-seeded Clark (20-6) advanced to its first NEWMAC final since 2010 with a 78-70 semifinal victory over sixth-seeded Emerson on Thursday night. 
•    Saintilus scored a game-high 21 points, Kekoa McArdle posted a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds and Mikey O'Brien added 13 points for the Cougars, who trailed by as many as nine in the first half.
•    Saintilus (16.5 pts, 5.8 reb, 2.5 ast, 1.8 stl) ranks third in the conference in both scoring and steals, Taylor (14.8 pts, 3.8 reb, 3.6 ast) has scored in double figures in six of the last eight games and McArdle (14.0 pts, 9.3 reb) is shooting a league-best 59.5 percent and has 12 double-doubles this winter. 
•    Clark ranks first against conference foes in scoring offense (79.4 points), field goal percentage (45.9), three-point field goals per game (8.9) and rebounding margin (+5.7). 

TWO DOWN, ONE TO GO
•    Following a regular season that saw two starters miss eight games apiece and 10 different players start at least three games, the Beavers are back in the NEWMAC final for the second year in a row thanks to victories over fifth-seeded Coast Guard (87-76) and top-seeded WPI (73-57). 
•    The Green and White fell to 8-11 after a 61-55 loss to WPI on January 24 but have rallied to win six of its last eight contests, which includes three road victories during this stretch. 

TOURNAMENT TRENDS
•    The Beavers back-to-back double-digit victories are their first in the NEWMAC Tournament since 2015 when they defeated MIT (57-47) in the semifinals and Springfield (72-62) in the final. 
•    Baxter's 36 points are the most in the postseason by a Babson player since 2017 when Joey Flannery '17 hung 38 points on Tufts in an NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 win. 
•    The Green and White, which now owns three victories over higher-seeded teams in the conference tournament over the last two seasons, has not trailed by more than five in any of the games. 

CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
•    The Beavers, who have captured five conference championships (2002, 2004, 2015, 2016, 2023) under head coach Stephen Brennan, will need to win three games in five days to secure a fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. 
•    The Green and White is 6-7 all-time in NEWMAC/CAC Tournament finals, which includes wins over Wheaton (2002) and Springfield (2004) inside the Kneller Athletic Center. 

HOMETOWN GLORY
•    Baxter, who is a Worcester native, is averaging 29.5 points, 4.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals in the Beavers' NEWMAC Tournament victories over Coast Guard and WPI this week. 
•    In road games against WPI and Clark during the regular season, he averaged 19.0 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 44.4 percent from the floor and 50 percent (4-of-8) from distance. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    Amado is averaging 17.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting 49.5 percent from the floor and 40 percent from behind the arc in seven career NEWMAC and NCAA Tournament games, including this week's victories over Coast Guard and WPI.
•    O'Toole has started all five of the postseason games he has appeared in and is averaging 9.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in this year's NEWMAC Tournament. 
•    Sophomore Tyler Lauder, who also owns five postseason starts over the last two seasons, grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds and added three steals in Thursday's win at WPI.

BEAVER BITES
•    Baxter has scored 15 or more points in 20 of his last 22 games, which includes eight outings of 20 or more points.
•    Since returning from injury against WPI on January 24, O'Toole is averaging 4.6 offensive boards and 10.5 rebounds per game in eight starts.
•    Junior David Cross, who is averaging 14.0 points in the NEWMAC Tournament, has contributed 10.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting 50 percent (13-of-26) from beyond the arc over the last six games.
•    Amado has scored 988 career points and is now just 12 shy of becoming the 29th player in Babson history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.

DOWN TO THE WIRE
•    In addition to the Beavers' 71-68 win back in January, Babson and Clark have produced a number of thrillers inside the Kneller Athletic Center over the last few seasons.
•     The Green and White rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit for a 66-62 win on February 11, 2023, which was preceded by coming back from 13 points down to pick up a71-68 OT victory on January 27, 2022. 
•    The Cougars' lone home win against Babson over the last decade came in 2020 when they erased a 19-point deficit in a 92-89 OT triumph. 

TOUGH ON D
•    After seeing WPI shoot 55.6 percent in the first half on Thursday, the Beavers locked down the Engineers in the second half holding them to just 27.6 percent from the field and 2-of-10 free three-point range. 
•    Over the last seven games of the regular season, Babson allowed just 59.3 points per game and 0.87 points per possession. 
•    The Beavers have held their last seven foes to just 25.9 percent shooting from three-point range and are allowing less than 10 offensive rebounds per outing. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 12-3 this season when shooting better than 40 percent from the field. 
•    Babson is 11-4 this winter when outrebounding its opponents. 
•    The Green and White is 14-6 when scoring at least 60 points this year.
•    The Beavers have won 10 consecutive games and are 19-1 over the last two seasons when allowing 60 points or less. 
•    Babson is 10-4 this winter when at least three players score in double figures.

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Saturday's final will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will find out where it is headed for the opening weekend of the championship on Monday at 1 p.m.