Bridgewater State Shoots Past Men’s Basketball

Release by Andrew Mowry

Framingham, Mass. - The Bridgewater State University Bears were able to remain perfect in conference play and improved to 8-7 on the season with an 87-70 win in Framingham against the Framingham State University Rams on Tuesday night in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action.

Brendan Monteiro (Brockton, Mass.) helped the Bears get off to a strong start with 16 first half points, as the Bears took a 38-26 lead into the half.  Monterio would go on to finish with a game-high 29 points.

Michael Lofton (Mansfield, Mass.) and Kyle Gibson (Franklin, Mass.) also contributed with 20 points apiece for the Bears.  The trio of Monterio, Lofton, and Gibson combined for 69 points on a combined 25-39 (64%) from the field. Gibson also had 14 rebounds.

The Rams were able to cut the Bears lead to as little as 6 in the second-half after a corner three pointer by sophomore guard Joe McCabe (Canton, Mass.).  However, the Bears would get back to a double-digit lead and not look back despite being outrebounded on the offensive glass 20-6.

Sophomore guard Tim McCarthy (Wilmington, Mass) finished with a team high 13 points for the Rams while freshman guard Dan Gould (Quincy, Mass.) was the only other Ram to finish in double-digits with 11-points.

The Rams are now 1-2 in the MASCAC and 5-9 overall on the season.

Assistant Coach of the Rams, Brendan Carter loves how the team is playing unselfish basketball early in conference play.  "If you look at the box score after each contest you'll see 8-points, 7-points, 10-points.  When a team is in a skid like we were in the past month you are going to experience disappointment and frustration," Carter said.

"Our guys did a great job of staying positive in practice and working on the little things to become a better team.  We are a very young team with a lot of potential. We just need to focus on executing and playing with confidence."

The Rams will look to rebound on Thursday at home when they have a non-conference showdown with Vaughn College. 

Bridgewater State is now 8-7 on the season, and joins Salem State as the only teams in the MASCAC without a conference loss. The Bears will host UMass-Boston on Thursday in a non-conference showdown before traveling to Worcester State on Saturday.