Lowther Nets 1000th Career Point as Men’s Basketball Celebrates Senior Day by Topping Clark - WPI Athletics - WPI Athletics

2023-02-22 05:05:50 By : Ms. Candy Lu

WORCESTER -- The #20 WPI (20-3, 12-1) men's basketball team cemented the number one seed in the upcoming NEWMAC tournament with a convincing 86-56 victory over visiting Clark on Senior Day at Harrington Auditorium on Saturday. The Engineers improved to 21-3 overall with a 13-1 record in NEWMAC play, while Clark fell to 14-11, 6-8. 

The Engineers will await the winner of the 4/5 matchup between Wheaton and Clark in the NEWMAC quarterfinals on Tuesday at Wheaton. WPI will begin its title quest in the semifinals hosting the advancing team on Thursday at 7pm at home at Harrington.  Training Net

Lowther Nets 1000th Career Point as Men’s Basketball Celebrates Senior Day by Topping Clark - WPI Athletics -  WPI Athletics

WPI got major contributions from its senior class, as John Lowther (Hingham, MA) became the 28th Engineer in program history to join the 1,000-point club. He finished with 12 points in the game. Austin Zhou (Acton, MA) and Ben Sseruwagi (Belmont, MA) made the most of their first career starts with Zhou netting nine points on 4-of-4 from the field and Sseruwagi adding six. Graduate student Reese Swedberg (Moultonborough, NH) pulled down four boards while adding a basket in the win. 

Also for the Engineers, Donovan Sevilla (San Ramon, CA) and Andrew Lufkin (Auburn, NH) tied for team-high honors with 12 points apiece, while John Adams (Douglas, MA) notched nine points and a team-best eight boards. Brett Marelli (Hampton, NH) and J.R. Newman (Havertown, PA) added six points each, while Aidan Callahan (Rowley, MA) dished out six assists with a pair of steals. 

Clark was paced by 14 points from Bruce Saintilus (Plainville, MA), while Kekoa McArdle (Pittsfield, MA), Reid Neumann (Burbank, CA), and Joel Arteaga (Wyncote, PA) all notched eight point efforts. McArdle and Mikey O'Brien (New York, NY) had team-highs of five rebounds. 

WPI wasted no time setting the tone in the game, popping off for an 18-0 run to start the first half. The spurt lasted nearly seven minutes, before Clark finally broke through with a Santilus free throw at the 13:02 mark. After the interruption, the Engineers continued to roll, building the lead to 23 points on a Lowther lay-up midway through the action. The Cougars got the deficit down to 16 with a 9-2 run that made it 31-15 with 5:14 to play, but again WPI answered, closing the half with seven straight points to make it 45-20 at the break. 

The Engineer offense kept its pace early in the second quarter, opening the second half on a 13-5 surge to grab their largest lead of the game thus far, going up 58-25. After the teams traded free throws, including Lowther nabbing career points number 1,000 and 1,001, WPI continued the offensive onslaught with a 12-2 run that put the hosts up 70-29 with 11:27 to play. Clark rallied a few times down the stretch, but the Engineers advantage stayed over 29 points the rest of the way was WPI wrapped its regular season dominance with the 86-56 victory. 

For the game, WPI shot 52.5% (31-59), going 50% (7-14) from three, holding Clark to 32.7% (16-49) from the field and just 25% (6-24) from long range. The Engineers forced 12 turnovers and out-rebounded the Cougars 40-28.

Lowther Nets 1000th Career Point as Men’s Basketball Celebrates Senior Day by Topping Clark - WPI Athletics -  WPI Athletics

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