Men’s Basketball Falls to Brandeis 66-56

Release by Andrew Mowry

Framingham, Mass. – The Framingham State University men's basketball team lost at home on Tuesday night to the Judges from Brandeis University, 66-56, in non-conference action.

Senior guard Anthony Trapasso (Sterling, Mass.) had a team-high 16 points for the Judges including a huge three-pointer after the Rams cut the Brandeis lead to five late in the second half.  Trapasso would later say after the game, "I was struggling a bit this season, so I was looking for a breakout game.  It felt good hitting a few shots early." 

With the win, the Judges improve to 8-3 at the halfway point in their season.  Brandeis will now rest up and will resume action after winter break when they travel to Bates on December 29th.  "We just came off a tough loss at Amherst the other night, so we needed this game to spark us going into the second half of the season," Trapasso said. 

Juniors Youri Dascy (Fall River, Mass.), Gabriel Moton (St. Petersburg, Fla.), and Ben Bartoldus (Hillsborough, N.H.) all scored in double-digits for the Judges.  Morton led the way with 14, while Bartoldus added 11 and Dascy chipped in 10 off the bench.

Senior Tyrone Figueroa (Revere, Mass.) had a game high 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting for the Rams. 
"I play my game within the system, that's where I get my buckets from teammates setting me up," Figueroa said after the game. 

The Rams have two more games before winter break and Figueroa said, "we can't keep our head down, they are a good team and you can't dwell on a loss like that." 

Framingham only shot 20% from the field in the first-half and was able to hang around despite the poor shooting.  However, in the second half whenever the Rams would pull within striking distance, the Judges would hit a key shot.  Trapasso would score 10 of his 16 points in the second-half. 

"You don't get any points for fighting.  Playing hard is a given for us, I expect us to compete and play hard.  We left plays out there that resulted in points for them.  When you play good teams you need to play good basketball," Head Coach Paul Wholey of the Rams said afterwards. 

Framingham State now 6-3 on the season will look to bounce back this Thursday when they travel to UMass Boston, before closing their first half of the season at home Sunday against Alfred at noon.