Senior guards Tim Reidy and Aidan Callahan scored 27 points apiece and junior guard J.R. Newman registered a rare and important four-point play late in the fourth quarter to lead 19th-ranked Worcester Polytechnic Institute to a hard-fought 81-71 victory over Bangor’s Husson University in their NCAA Division III tournament game at the Harrington Auditorium in Worcester, Mass. on Friday night.
The Engineers improved to 25-3 with their 17th win in their last 18 games and they will take on Ithaca in Saturday’s 5:30 championship game.
WPI improved to 15-1 at the Harrington Auditorium.
WPI has won all seven meetings against Husson.
Husson finished up at 21-8 and had its nine-game winning streak snapped.
The Eagles trailed by as many as 14 points in the second but they didn’t quit, making a number of runs to pull within eight on several occasions and within seven with 49 seconds left.
But that was as close as they were to get as the Engineers put the game away with foul shots.
Graduate student forward Scott Lewis nailed a 3-pointer off a Tope Alao pass to pull Husson within eight with 4:03 remaining in the game but Newman gave WPI valuable breathing room 30 seconds later when he was fouled hitting a 3-pointer and also sank the free throw.
Reidy had three rebounds, three assists and two steals to go with his 27 points and Callahan had four assists.
Newman wound up with 12 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Graduate student forward Lewis from South Portland paced the Eagles with 18 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
Graduate student guard Jeremy Moronta had 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists; Alao had 12 points and four rebounds and senior guard Riles Neff wound up with 11 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Junior forward Gil Matondo chipped in with nine points, four assists and three rebounds.
Husson outrebounded WPI 41-27 and had a 17-4 edge in second chance points.
But the Engineers had an 18-2 edge in fast break points.
Husson shot 46.2 percent from the floor and 37.5 percent beyond the 3-point arc while the Engineers shot 39.6 percent and 45.7 percent, respectively.
WPI went 23-for-28 from the free throw line while Husson went 17-for-28.
