CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – In the regular season men's basketball finale, No. 20 Babson College built an early lead and then held off a late charge by MIT to take a 94-80 victory in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference game. Freshman Adam Jurko (Weston, Fla.) led all players with 29 points for MIT, while junior Joey Flannery (Acton, Mass.) led Babson with 27.

After battling to a 6-6 draw after the first three minutes, Babson (19-5, 13-1 NEWMAC) went on an 11-2 run, getting the final five points from sophomore Nick Comenale (New York Mills, N.Y.) to take a 17-8 lead. MIT (19-5, 10-4 NEWMAC) answered with a run of its own, getting a three-point play from senior Lampros Tsontzos (Amarousion, Greece) to start 10-2 surge that had the Engineers back within one at 19-18 on a pair of free throws from freshman Cameron Korb (Los Gatos, Calif.).

A minute later Babson scored nine straight points, pushing their advantage to 10 points for the first time in the contest when sophomore Bradley Jacks (Fort Washington, Md.) connected on a layup to make it 30-20. From there the Beavers, who shot nearly 60 percent in the half, maintained a double-digit for most of the remaining eight minutes. MIT stayed within striking distance, getting seven points from Jurko over the final three minutes as Babson held a 47-39 edge at the half.

A jumper by Jurko to start the second half had MIT within six, but Babson came back with six straight to take a 53-41 lead on a layup by junior David Stauffer (York, Pa.). The Engineers could not put together a run and the Beavers slowly built on their lead, pulling out to a 79-60 advantage after a steal by junior Sam Bohmiller (Franklin, Mass.) led to a dunk by Flannery with 6:17 to go.

Babson then went cold from the floor, missing on its next seven shots. MIT took the opening and put together its best run of the half, outscoring the Beavers 12-0 over a three-minute span to get back in it. Freshman Bradley Jomard (Paris, France) scored five of the 12 points and Tsontzos finished the rush with a layup that had the Engineers within seven at 79-72 with 3:31 left.

Comenale broke Babson's scoring draught with a three and the Beavers maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way. Babson sank all 10 of its free throw attempts in the final 1:21 to ice it, including Bohmiller going 6-for-6 from the stripe.

Flannery was 14-for-16 from the line as part of his day and added five assists for Babson. Bohmiller and Jacks both finished with 16 points for the Beavers, who shot 51 percent from the field. Jacks also led the Beavers with nine rebounds, with junior Charlie Rice (Barnstable, Mass.) adding 13 points and seven boards.

Playing for the first time in a month, Jurko hit on 10 of his 14 field goal attempts for MIT, which shot 49 percent. Playing in his final home game Tsontzos had 17 points and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds to go along with four blocked shots. Senior Justin Pedley (Kennewick, Wash.) added 15 points and grabbed six rebounds, with Jomard adding 10 points for the Engineers.

MIT will now move on to the NEWMAC tournament next week. As the No. 3 seed, the Engineers will play No. 2 seed WPI at Babson at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 27. No. 1 seed Babson will play the winner of the first round game between #4 seed Springfield and #5 Emerson on Saturday at 12:00 p.m.