Mass, Carty Lead Men's Basketball to 67-61 Win Over RIC

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – Junior guard Fawaz Mass (Taunton, Mass.) scored 19 points and sophomore forward Joseph Carty (Natick, Mass.) added 17 to lift the Bridgewater State University men's basketball team to a 67-61 victory over Rhode Island College on Tuesday night at the Tinsley Center.

The Bears improve to 2-4 on the young season with the win, while the Anchormen slip to 1-3 overall.

Mass went 9-from-12 from the free throw line and pulled down seven rebounds. Carty, who was a perfect 7-for-7 at the charity stripe, finished with a double-double as he grabbed ten board while also dishing out three assists.

Junior forward Terrance Tribble (White Plains, N.Y.) paced the visitors with a double-double effort of 15 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore guard Chris Green (Taunton, Mass.) added 15 points and seven boards, while freshman forward Justin Campbell (New Haven, Conn.) checked in with 12 points.

RIC used a 9-0 run to take an early 15-4 lead. Green scored five points during the run and capped it off with a three-pointer.

The Bears clawed their way back into the game and cut the deficit to four (28-24) on a Greg Romanko (Mansfield, Mass.) jumper with 2:15 remaining in the opening stanza.  However, back-to-back layups by junior forward Alex Cruz (East Hartford, Conn.) and Tribble in the final minute of play pushed the RIC lead back up to eight (32-24). Mass closed out the first have scoring with a short jumper with a second to go to make it a 32-26 game at the intermission.

Green paced the Anchormen with nine first half points, while Tribble added eight. Mass and Carty led the way for the Bears over the first 20 minutes with eight and seven points, respectively.

The Bears carried the momentum into the second half as they held the Anchormen to just two points over the first 7 ½ minutes. Four points from Mass and a traditional three-point play by Romanko highlighted a 13-2 run as the Bears took a 39-34 lead.

Bridgewater would never trail again. RIC got as close as one point, 49-48, following a Jimmy Fritzson (Sharon, Mass.) three-pointer and a Campbell layup with 5 ½ minutes to go. The Bears answered with a 9-2 run to go back up by eight with under two minutes left to play.

DeAndrade knocked down a shot clock beating three-pointer and Mass went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final minute to secure the victory for the Bears.

Bridgewater shot 42% (22-53) from the floor and 88% (21-24) at the charity stripe. The Anchormen connected on just 39% (27-70) of their field goal attempts including 4 for 27 (15%) from behind the arc.

Following an eight day lay-off, the Bears travel to UMass Dartmouth on Thursday, December 3rd for a seven o'clock game with the Corsairs. Rhode Island College entertains the Jumbos of Tufts University on Saturday (Nov. 28) afternoon at one.