Lofton's Double-Double Lifts Men's Basketball to 65-58 Win over UMass Boston

BOSTON, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's basketball team held off a furious second half rally as the visiting Bears downed UMass Boston, 65-58, on Thursday evening in the Clark Athletic Center Gymnasium.

The Bears improve to 9-6 with the victory as the game marked Head Coach Joe Farroba's 600th on the BSU bench.  Farroba is 324-276 (.540) in 23 seasons as the Bears' skipper.

With Thursday's loss, the Beacons (9-5)  have now dropped 10 of the last 12 meetings between the two rivals.

Senior forward Michael Lofton (Mansfield, Mass.) posted his fifth double-double of the season as he paced the visitors with 16 points and a season-high 14 rebounds.  Lofton also filled the stat sheet with five assists, two blocks, and three steals.  Senior guard Justin Clark (Yarmouth Port, Mass.) added 14 points and a pair of steals, while senior forward Kyle Gibson (Franklin, Mass.) chipped in with ten points and six boards to help carry the Bears to the victory.

Bridgewater State raced out to a 45-27 halftime lead as the Bears limited UMass to just 11 field goals and forced ten turnovers over the first twenty minutes.

The Beacon offense, however, came roaring back in the second half.  After a Clark three-pointer and a Lofton layup gave the Bears their biggest lead of the game at 50-27, UMass went on a 11-1 run to make it a 13-point game (51-38) with 14:16 left in the contest.  Senior Carl Joseph (Brockton, Mass.) proved to be the spark plug in the Beacons early run scoring eight of UMass' 14 points.

The Bears would maintain their solid lead for the next three minutes, but then went scoreless for a seven-minute stretch to allow the Beacons to get back into the game.  Fifteen straight points by UMass turned a then 19-point defificit into a four-point game (57-53) with less than five minutes to play.

A lay-up from Clark momentarily stopped the bleeding for the Bears, but a lay-up from junior guard Mike Campbell (Boston, Mass.) and a huge three-pointer by senior forward Gregory Young (Dorchester, Mass.) pulled the Beacons to within one, 59-58, with just 2:11 left to play.

On the ensuing possession, Bridgewater turned the ball over but UMass was unable to capitalize as Young's close-range shot was off the mark.  Lofton then drained a big jumper to put the Bears up 61-58 as the clock ticked under a minute.

Following a turnover, the Bears' missed from long range but Lofton corralled the key offensive rebound and was fouled.  He promptly buried both free throws to push the advantage to five (63-58) with just 17 seconds remaining.  Clark would close out the scoring with a pair of free throws in the final seconds. 

Joseph and Young each scored a game-high 16 points, while junior forward Karl Agenor (Dorchester, Mass.) dropped in 12 points, while also collecting a team-best nine rebounds.  Of Joseph's 16 points, nine came in the final 20 minutes.

On the night the two teams were nearly even in almost every category, but it was the Bears first half 54.8 field goal percentage that proved to be the difference in the end.  Bridgewater also attempted ten more free throws and finished 15-for-21 (71%) from the charity stripe. 

The Bears also posted a slim +2 advantage on the glass (34-32) as well as a 22-14 margin in points off turnovers, but it was the Beacons who held a 40-28 edge in points in the paint and an 11-4 edge in second chance points.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday afternoon.  UMass Boston travels to Little East Conference rival Western Connecticut State University to take on the Colonials at three, while Bridgewater State entertains Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) foe Worcester State University at one.

Notes: With his 16 points, Lofton moved past John McSharry (1,230 pts.) into 15th place on the Bears' all-time scoring list.  Lofton now has 1,239 points in four seasons at Bridgewater State.