Men's Basketball Fends Off Babson, 74-66
Babson Park, Mass. - Framingham State College used an 8-2 run to close the first half and a 9-0 spurt to start the second to claim an eventual 74-66 victory over host Babson College in a non-conference men's basketball contest at Babson's Staake Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Rams finish the regular season with a record of 15-9, while the Beavers enter the postseason with a mark of 10-15.
The Rams will be the second seed in the upcoming Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) men's basketball tournament and will host a semifinal game next Thursday night.
Both teams put four players in double figures. For Framingham, senior Josue Almodovar (Holyoke, Mass.) led all players with 18 points, junior Royce Veal (Dorchester, Mass.) added 14, senior Bill Carey (Abington, Mass.) scored 11, and first-year Caesar Veal (Dorchester, Mass.) netted 10. Almodovar grabbed a game-best seven rebounds for the Rams, while Carey recorded three steals.
Babson was led by first-years Marcus McDermott (Milton, Mass.) and Russell Braithwaite (Brooklyn, N.Y.), who both scored 12 points. Junior captain Matt Zoia (Nashua, N.H.) and sophomore Matt Florio (Skillman, N.J.) each added 10 points in the loss, while sophomore Marcus Edwards (East Hampton, N.Y.) and first-year Alex Rudolph (Bal Harbour, Fla.) tossed in eight apiece. McDermott also led the team with five assists, while he and Edwards each grabbed four rebounds.
In a contest that featured 52 personal fouls, Framingham State held a crucial free throw advantage, knocking down 26 of its 37 attempts while Babson made just 17 of its 25 chances. The Beavers came out strong early on, however, building an 11-2 advantage over the first three and a half minutes of play. Framingham State eventually battled back and took its first lead at 12-11 with 12:20 left in the first half, and the Rams later closed the period with an 8-2 run to turn a 26-26 tie into a 34-28 lead at the break.
Framingham State continued its momentum into the second half, starting the session with nine straight points to take a 43-28 lead. Royce Veal started the run with a jumper at 19:27 and later capped it with a lay-in at 16:41.
The Rams eventually led by as many as 16 on two occasions, and the still held a double-digit advantage at 61-49 with 4:46 remaining in the game. Babson then made one final push when McDermott scored four straight points and Edwards added two more as the Beavers cut their deficit to just six at 55-49 with 6:04 on the clock. However, that would be as close as the hosts would get as Framingham State came right back with a 7-0 burst, capped off by a conventional three-point play by Ceasar Veal, to push its lead to 62-49. Babson would never get closer than eight the rest of the way as the Rams held on for the 74-66 victory.
Release courtesy of Babson Sports Information.