College Basketball: Bridgewater State Men Edge Worcester State

By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- There were two challenging games on the Bridgewater State University men's basketball schedule over the past four days.

With the end of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season approaching, the Bears traveled to first-place Salem State on Wednesday night and hosted second-place Worcester State on Saturday afternoon.

BSU passed those tests with flying colors, sweeping the games against the Vikings and the Lancers to move within a game of second place in the MASCAC.

The sweep was completed when junior guard Fawaz Mass of Taunton hit a game-winning shot with only one second remaining, giving the Bears a 67-65 victory over Worcester State at the Tinsley Center.

BSU (10-12, 6-4) is now a game behind second-place Worcester State and Fitchburg State (7-3) with two games remaining this week.

"I think we've established ourselves as a pretty good program and when we recruit kids, they're expected to carry on,'' said Bears coach Joe Farroba after his team ended the Lancers' five-game winning streak for their second impressive victory over the week. "I talk about it all the time.

"This builds a little momentum late in the season, and now we've got Westfield, which beat us, coming here. Can we keep it going?''

Mass, who finished with 11 points and four rebounds, provided the winning basket after BSU had taken a timeout not long after Worcester State tied the game with 29 seconds remaining.

The Taunton High graduate moved from the left to the circle and hit a jumper that bounced off the rim and in. The Lancers were left with a second on the clock and could only try a long desperation shot.

"I made up my mind to take the shot because they were sagging off me all game,'' said Mass. "I knew I was going to get a good shot off and I wasn't going to leave much time.''

The play (called "throw back'') was called in the huddle and provided Mass with options to get the ball to an outside shooter if he was crowded.

"That was what we were looking for out of the timeout,'' said Farroba, whose team held the Lancers to 2-for-16 shooting on 3-pointers. "We open the court. We felt it was important getting a shot going towards the basket. We had guys outside so we could kick the ball out. Fawaz is one of our better ones going to the basket.''

Joseph Carty led BSU with 15 points and 17 rebounds while Ryan Carney of Easton made 6 of 8 shots to score 14 points in 21 minutes.

The Bears got 26 points from their bench and reserve Michael Soares chipped in with nine rebounds.

BSU held a 36-32 lead at halftime against the Lancers (15-8) and built a 59-47 advantage with 6:25 to go on a three-point play by Mass.

But a 16-4 run by Worcester State, culminating with a three-point play by Bilal Shakir with 1:04 left, tied the game at 63. Mass hit a jumper with 37 seconds to go, but Alex Santos tied it again eight seconds later.

Now, BSU faces Westfield State and the Mass. College of Liberal Arts before opening the conference tourney a week from Tuesday night.

"Lately, we've been improving, and going into the tournament, it's very positive to be winning games like this,'' said Mass. "I knew we were capable of beating teams like this.

"We weren't clicking at times and we had a lot of injuries, but now it's coming together.''