Late Comeback Falls Short as Fitchburg State Defeats Men's Basketball 94-81
Framingham, Mass. – The Fitchburg State University men's basketball team had five players record double figures as they held off the Framingham State University Rams second half comeback for a 94-81 victory this afternoon in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) men's basketball action at Framingham's Athletic Center.
With the victory the Falcons improve to 9-4 on the season and 1-1 in the MASCAC, while the Rams slip to 6-9 overall and are still in search of their first MASCAC victory at 0-3.
The Falcons took control of the game midway through the first half when they used a 15-4 run capped by back-to-back three pointers from sophomore guard Mike Ingram-Rubin (Boston, Mass.) to break a 16-16 deadlock and take a 31-20 lead with just under eight minutes remaining. The Falcons extended the lead to 14 (45-31) with just over three minutes in the half, but the Rams closed the half with a 10-2 outburst capped by a Jamie Henderson (Duncanville, TX) layup in traffic to cut the deficit to 47-41 at the break.
The Rams scored the first six points of the second half on a pair of buckets from freshman Andre Santana (Worcester, Mass.) and an Allen Saint-Surin lay-in off a feed from sophomore Juan Lopez (Holyoke, Mass.) to tie the game at 47-47 with 18:45 remaining.
The two teams traded baskets over the next two minutes and a Lopez bucket with 16:46 on the clock tied the score at 51-51. The Falcons took control of the game for good with a 9-2 spurt fueled by four points from junior forward Tom Henneberry (Lexington, Mass.) to take a 60-53 lead with just under 14 minutes remaining.
Fitchburg State extended their lead to as many as 15 with 4:30 remaining. The Rams slowly chipped away and a Justin Perron (North Attleboro, Mass.) trifecta with 2:24 remaining cut the lead Falcon lead to single digits (86-78), but that was as close as the Rams would get as the Falcons scored eight unanswered points to push the lead back to 16 and secure the victory.
Ingram-Rubin led all scorers with a game-high 19 points to go along with seven rebounds, six assists and three steals, while junior Adam Fahey (Auburn, Mass.) finished with 17 on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. Junior Brandon Selby (Baltimore, MD) and classmate Zach Valliere (Douglas, Mass.) finished with 16 and 15 points respectively and Henneberry added 13. Valliere finished with a double double as he also grabbed a game-best 10 boards.
The Rams were led by sophomore Tyrone Figueroa (Revere, Mass.) who finished with 18 points on 7-of-15 from the field with four assists and three steals. Santana and junior Rico DePaolis (Watertown, Mass.) were the only other Rams to record double figures with 14 and 10 points respectively. Perron finished with nine on a trio of three pointers, while Lopez finished with eight, five assists and four steals.
The Rams return to action on Tuesday at Salem State University at 7:30 p.m., while the Falcons host Worcester State University on Tuesday evening also at 7:30 p.m.