WORCESTER, Mass. – The Clark men's basketball team (15-4, 4-4 NEWMAC) earned a hard fought 79-74 conference win over MIT (10-8, 3-5 NEWMAC) on Sunday afternoon from the Kneller Gymnasium.  

The two-game season sweep over MIT was the Cougars first since the 2001-02 season.

How it Happened

• Clark took an early `14-8 lead sparked by five points by sophomore Mikey O'Brien and three-pointers from graduate student Biko Gayman and first-year Isaiah Taylor before a layup and a free throw from graduate student Matthew Waggett gave the Cougars a 17-8 edge with 11:41 remaining in the first half.
• Waggett then connected on a three-pointer and a layup and a bucket from sophomore Bruce Saintilus pushed the advantage to 24-12 before MIT scored the next seven points and Gayman ended the run with a made jumper off a steal to go up 26-19 with 7:27 to go in the first half.
• Davern scored the team's next five points and made a layup with 2:29 to go in the first to push the lead to 11 at 37-26 and first-year Kyle Jackson buried a triple to help extend the Clark advantage to 44-33 at the end of one half.
• Davern then netted the Cougars first seven points and an O'Brien layup extended the lead to 53-43 before MIT scored the next six points to give Clark a 53-49 edge with 15:21 left.
• Sophomore Kolby Randolph connected on a triple and another Waggett layup pushed the lead to 60-53 before the Engineers pulled within one at 61-60 with 9:47 remaining.
• Clark then went on a 6-0 run led by four points from Saintilus and two from Davern to extend the advantage to 67-60 and O'Brien buried a pair of free throws to go up 69-62.
• Taylor scored five unanswered points to give Clark a lead by as many as nine at 76-67 with 4:44 left to play and MIT scored the next seven points to get withing two at 76-74 with 1:00 remaining.
• The Cougars defense held MIT scoreless over the final minute and free throws from Saintilus and Taylor gave Clark a 79-74 win.

Inside the Box Score

• Davern led the way with 23 points on 8-16 shooting and grabbed five rebounds.
• Waggett and O'Brien each added 11 points.
• Saintilus also reached double-figures with 10 points.
• Clark grabbed 28 rebounds, made eight threes, dished out 17 assists, and recorded 12 steals, while forcing 24 turnovers.

What's Next

Clark will complete its three-game conference homestand when they welcome Coast Guard to the Kneller on Wednesday night starting at 7:00 p.m.