Men's Basketball Edged by MIT, 76-71

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Junior guard Ian Hinkley (Raleigh, N.C.) scored 26 points and freshman forward Kael Kordonowy (Wichita, Kan.) added 21 to lead the MIT men's basketball team to a 76-71 victory over visiting Bridgewater State University on Thursday night at the Rockwell Cage.

The Engineers improve to 7-4 on the season, while the Bears fall to 2-8.

Hinkley knocked down seven three-pointers and grabbed six rebounds, while Kordonowy went 9-for-15 from the floor and added nine boards and six assists. Sophomore guard Dan Pilsbury (Millington, N.J.) added 13 points, six rebounds and three assists for MIT.

Senior forward Dimitri St. Louis (Brockton, Mass.) equaled his career-high with 27 points and pulled down a career-best 18 rebounds to lead the way for Bridgewater State. St. Louis connected on 11 of 17 field goal attempts and seven of his 18 boards came off the offensive glass.

Senior guard Ryan Carney (Easton, Mass.) added 24 points, four rebounds and four assists for the Bears, while senior forward Rayshon Ward (Fayetteville, N.C.) checked in with 14 points and five boards.

In a tightly contested first half, the Engineers closed out the stanza with an 8-2 run to turn a 29-28 deficit into a 36-31 lead at the break. Pilsbury started the run with a jumper and capped it off with a buzzer-beating layup.

Hinkley led all players with 14 points over the first 20 minutes. Carney paced the Bears with 11 points in the first half while St. Louis added ten.

MIT maintained the lead throughout most of the second half and held a 69-61 advantage with under four minutes remaining. The Bears, however, rallied to tie the game. A Ward layup followed by a Carney three-pointer cut the deficit to 69-66. After Hinkley knocked down a pair of free throws, St. Louis drained a trifecta to make it a two-point game, 71-69, with 2:28 left to play. The Engineers committed back-to-back turnovers and the Bears capitalized on the second one as Carney dropped in a layup to knot the score at 71-71 with 1:26 showing on the scoreboard.

Bridgewater, however, would not score again. The Bears missed a shot with a chance to take the lead and then turned the ball over on each of their final three possessions. The Engineers went 5-for-6 at the free throw line in the final 58 seconds to come away with the 76-71 victory.

Both teams shot an identical 45% (28-62) from the floor. The Engineers connected on 9 of 31 (29%) three-point field goals and finished 11-for-17 (65%) at the free throw line, while the Bears went 5-for-17 (29%) from behind the arc and 10-for-13 (77%) at the charity stripe.

MIT finished with a 24-6 advantage in points off turnovers.

Of the 147 points scored in the game, 141 came from the starters. MIT freshman guard Matas Masys (Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.) tallied six points to go along with five assists and five steals in 37 minutes off the bench.

Both teams are off until after the holidays. The Bears travel to Springfield College on Friday, January 3rd (1:00 PM) to take on the Pride in the semifinal round of the Naismith Classic. The Engineers open New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play at WPI on Wednesday, January 8th (6:00 PM).

Notes: Carney (1,246 pts.) moved into 16th place on the Bears' all-time scoring, while Ward (1,147 pts.) is now 24th in program history.