Men's Basketball Falls In Opening Round Of Coaches Versus Cancer Holiday Tournament

Worcester, MA --- Freshman Robbie Burke (Cheshire, MA) recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds to help lead Colby-Sawyer to a 75-61 triumph over Worcester State this evening at the Lancer Gymnasium to advance to the inaugural Coaches versus Cancer Tournament Championship.

The Chargers (4-4) will take on Buffalo State in the title game which will take place at 2 PM while the Lancers (1-7) look to snap a four game skid against Elms at noon in the consolation round. In the other game this evening, the Bengals came from behind to defeat the Blazers, 98-92 in double overtime.

Junior Will Bardaglio (Wayne, ME) also tallied 15 points with a game-best five steals for Colby-Sawyer while senior Brandon Carbone (Portland, ME) added 10 points and seven boards.

The Blue and Gold were paced by freshman Emmanuel Ferraud (Worcester, MA/South) who came off the bench to score 14 points while junior Frank Stephenson (Fall River, MA) added 13 points and eight caroms. Senior Dave Douillette (Bridgewater, MA) chipped in with eight points, nine rebounds and a trio of assists.

Colby-Sawyer held advantages in all the major categories which included rebounds (46-42), offensive boards (20-15), points off turnovers (28-19), second chance points (16-9 and points in the paint (34-28). Both squads were inconsistent from beyond the arc as they combined to make just eight buckets from downtown off of 32 attempts (25 percent).

There were 11 lead changes and three ties in the first 13 minutes of play before the visitors eventually took the 19-18 advantage at 8:39 on a layup by sophomore Corey Willis (Easton, MA). Down by two with seven minutes left following a trey by Ferraud, the Chargers upped their advantage to five (26-21) on a free throw and a two-point bucket in the paint by Burke over the 60 seconds of game play.

With Colby-Sawyer up 28-23 with 3:12 remaining in the opening stanza, Stephenson nailed a three-pointer to have the Lancers trail by only two points (28-26), but that was as close as they would get before the Chargers used a 10-2 run to close out the half. The key play in the run was a three-pointer with two seconds left in the period by Bardaglio for the 38-30 edge at the intermission.

Worcester State would get as close as six points twice at the beginning of the second period, but Colby-Saywer pulled away each time as they went up by 11 on a three by junior James Tobin (Brookline, MA) at the 16:00 minute mark (45-34). The Lancers would then outscore the visitors 13-6 over the next six minutes to make it a four point game midway through the second period (51-47).

But the Chargers took advantage of three miscues to score six consecutive points capped off by a traditional three-point play by Bardaglio for a 57-47 lead with 7:57 left.

The Lancers made one final push five minutes later to make it a seven point game with 2:17 remaining in regulation (66-59) before Colby-Sawyer sealed their bid to the tournaments title game by hitting nine of their last 10 shots from the charity stripe to end the contest.

One third of the both team's totals came from the free throw line in a contest that would see the two squads combine for 49 fouls. The Chargers went 25-for-36 from the stripe (69 percent) while the Lancers were 17-for-23 (74 percent).