WORCESTER, Mass. -- In his first collegiate start, Salve Regina University men's basketball freshman Pat Spenard scored a career-best 20 points on 6-for-10 from the floor and 7-of-8 at the free throw line, but the #11 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Engineers engineered an 86-65 win in NEWMAC opener on Tuesday evening at the Harrington Auditorium.

Spenard finished with his first career double-double as he also added a game-high 12 rebounds.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP
Final: WPI 86, Salve Regina 65
Records: Salve Regina (3-5, 0-1 NEWMAC), WPI (8-0, 1-0 NEWMAC)
History: WPI leads the all-time series 12-5. Riding a five-game win streak, the Engineers swept the initial NEWMAC series last season (64-50 in Newport, 74-58 in Worcester). The first meeting came in 1990. Salve Regina earned its first victory in the series, 77-76, at home in 1994 at the Rogers High School gymnasium while the last Seahawk triumph against the Engineers came on November 27, 2001, in Worcester (68-47).

SUMMARY

• 1H | The contest was back-and-forth through the first 10 minutes with six lead changes and three ties before WPI embarked upon a 12-0 run to transform a three-point to a nine-point advantage at 25-16 with 6:35 to go before intermission. The Seahawks scored nine of the last 11 points to forge the final tie of the contest before WPI closed out the half with a 12-5 spurt to take a 39-32 lead into the break.  Callahan and Margetson each netted 12 points to account for 24 of WPI's 39 first half points on 51.6% shooting from the floor. | Engineers 39, Seahawks 32
• 2H | Reidy tallied a trio of shots from downtown in the second half, including a rare four-point play to put the Crimson and Gray up 19 at 63-44 midway through the stanza. For the game, the hosts drained 11-of-32 (34.4%) 3-pointers while limiting the Seahawks to just 5-of-23 (21.7%) from downtown. Salve Regina did hit 75.0% of its free throws (18-of-24) while WPI drained just 11-of-18 (61.1%). The Engineers handed out 20 assists on the night on 32 made field goals while only committing nine turnovers. | Engineers 86, Seahawks 65

NOTEWORTHY

• Sean Seymour's slashing layup at 3:36 in the first tied the score at 27-all and Seymour retrieved his left sneaker and tossed to his bench when coming back on defense.
• Pat Spenard's 3-pointer at 5:30 in the first started a 9-0 Seahawk run.
• Jojo Powers finished with 14 points while Seymour added 10 for the Seahawks.
• Powers, Declan Walmsley, James Jolly had three assists each.
• Current head coach Sean Foster '97 was a first-year player for Salve Regina (after transferring from Westbrook) on the team that beat WPI in 1994. That squad won the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) championship later that season and earned the school's first-ever team entry into the NCAA Championships.

ON THE HORIZON
Salve Regina returns to Worcester, Massachusetts, for its second NEWMAC road contest on Saturday as the Seahawks tip off against the Cougars of Clark University at 1 p.m.