WORCESTER, Mass. – Clark men's basketball (12-3, 6-0 NEWMAC) welcomed WPI (11-3, 4-1 NEWMAC) to the Kneller in a crosstown matchup for first-place in the NEWMAC and the Cougars rallied in the second half to come away with a thrilling 73-69 victory over the Engineers on Thursday night.

How it Happened

• The scarlet and white jumped out to an early 6-0 lead as senior Mikey O'Brien, junior Bruce Saintilus, and junior Kekoa McArdle and a jumper from sophomore Reid Neumann extended the Cougar edge to 8-2 with 16:12 to go in the first half.
• Junior Isaiah Taylor kept the Cougars in the lead with a made layup to go up 11-6 and a triple from first-year Quentin Pridgen kept the lead at six before the Engineers scored nine unanswered points before a layup from Saintilus made it a 17-16 contest in favor of the visitors.
• Seven straight WPI points pushed their edge to eight before Saintilus scored another bucket and before the half O'Brien hit a three-pointer and right before the break, Saintilus hit a fadeaway jumper as the Engineers held a 30-25 edge at the half.
• McArdle scored three of Clark's first five points of the second half before Saintilus and Neumann each added three points as the scarlet and white jumped out to a 36-33 lead.
• The teams then traded buckets over the next few minutes before the Engineers tied the game at 40-40 before Taylor converted three free throws to keep the edge at three with 13:24 remaining.
• Saintilus scored four of Clark's six points and a three-pointer from junior Ian Calabrese made it a 54-50 contest with 8:43 to go before a jumper from Taylor extended the lead to 56-50 with 7:46 to play.
• Another Calabrese triple pushed the edge to nine before the Engineers pulled to within four before McArdle made a layup gave Clark a 64-58 with 5:32 remaining.
• O'Brien connected on a three-pointer off a feed from McArdle to give the Cougars a 69-61 lead, but WPI responded with six unanswered points to pull within two at 69-67 with 1:38 to play.
• After Clark forced a missed jumper from Aidan Callahan, Taylor came down the floor and buried a foul-line extended jumper with 0:18 remaining to five Clark a 71-67 lead.
• WPI made a pair of free throws to cut the deficit back to two before O'Brien put the game away with a pair of made free throws as the scarlet and white came away with a 73-69 victory.

Inside the Box Score

• The Cougars grabbed 35 rebounds, dished out 14 assists, and shot 58.7% from the floor.
• Saintilus netted a team-leading 20 points on 7-14 shooting.
• McArdle recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
• O'Brien added 13 points and four assists.
• Taylor registered nine points, including the game-winning jumper and dished out three assists.

What's Next
Clark will close out the week with a road NEWMAC fixture against MIT on Saturday afternoon beginning at 3:00 p.m.