Bridgewater State Edges Men’s Basketball, 68-66

Worcester, MA --- Senior Anthony Fortes (Providence, RI) tallied a game-high 21 points with four rebounds to help lead Bridgewater State to a 68-66 triumph over Worcester State in MASCAC men's basketball action this evening at the Lancer Gym.

The Bears improve their record to 8-7 and 2-1 in conference play while the Lancers slip to 6-9 and 3-2 in league action.

Fourth-year Samuel Johnson (N. Chelmsford, MA) ended his night with 13 points and six boards as classmate Cory Ryser (Tewksbury, MA) added 12 points.

Senior Robert Hunter (St. Louis, MI) registered his ninth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 caroms and he also finished with a contest high four steals. Sophomore Mike Gittens (Uncasville, CT) notched 14 points and junior Kyle Ferreira (Westport, MA) filled up the stat sheet with 11 points, six assists and a trio of swipes.

Worcester State jumped out to a 14-8 lead by the 12:39 mark before the visitors would embark on a 22-5 run to claim the 30-19 advantage with 5:33 left to play in the first half.

The Lancers responded with an 11-2 surge to trail by just two points with 1:31 remaining, but Bridgewater State would rattle off five straight points for the 37-30 lead with 20 seconds left.

With 0.09 seconds showing on the clock, Hunter would sidearm a three-point attempt from half court to beat the clock and make it a four point game at the intermission.

The Bears would open the second half with an 8-1 run and stretch the lead to 45-34 at the 16:33 mark. With BSU ahead 50-42 with 12:50 remaining, the Lancers whittled away the advantage over the next five minutes to pull to within one point (55-54).

After a jumper by Johnson, sophomore Eric LaRiviere (Worcester, MA/St. Peter Marian) knotted the score for the hosts 57-57 on a traditional three-point play at 6:53.

With the score knotted at 61-61 both teams missed opportunities to go up as WSU missed four bids from the field and the Bears coughed up the ball three times over the next two minutes before Fortes gave BSU the lead for good on the front-end of a bonus opportunity with 3:25 remaining.

Fortes would then extended the lead to four with an old-fashioned three-point play 20 seconds later (65-61).

Worcester State responded with a trey in the corner by Ferreira, but Fortes came up in the clutch with a jumper at the elbow to keep the advantage at three with 1:33 left.

Freshman Charles Gunter (Boston, MA/New Mission) would then sink a pair of free throws to get within one (67-66), but would turn out to be the final score as Johnson converted the front of a bonus attempt with 20 ticks left.

In the final minute of play Bridgewater State only sank one of their five attempts from the charity stripe, but the Lancers could not take advantage. In their final play with 10 seconds to go in the game, Gittens missed a three-pointer at the top of the arch just before the buzzer sounded.

In addition to holding the 37-32 edge in total rebounds, the Bears also led in offensive caroms (15-10), points in the paint (38-32), transition points (18-11) and second chance opportunities (16-9) while both teams were even in points off turnovers (21-21).

Both teams had good nights shooting the ball as Bridgewater State was 48 percent from the field (27-for-56) and Worcester State finished 44 percent (24-for-54).

BSU struggled from the free throw line (10-for-23 – 44 percent) and did not make a basket from beyond the arc in the second half (zero-for-seven) after making four of their first six attempts. The Lancers made six of their 16 attempts from downtown (38 percent).

Both teams will play again on Saturday. Worcester State travels to Weston, MA to take on Regis at 5 PM while Bridgewater State entertains Salem State at 3 o'clock.