Men's Basketball Rolls to 99-75 Win Over Dean

FRANKLIN, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's basketball team ended a four-game losing streak in emphatic fashion on Wednesday.

The Bears scored 59 first-half points on the way to a 99-75 non-conference victory over Dean College at the Pieri Gymnasium, improving to 3-5.

BSU took the lead for good just 1:12 into the game and was ahead by as many as 34 points against the Bulldogs (5-4), who had a three-game winning streak snapped.

The Bears now own a 4-2 lead in the series with Dean, winning four in a row against the Bulldogs.

Freshman Josh Campbell (Plymouth, Mass.) was BSU's top scorer with 24 points in 24 minutes. The Archbishop Williams High graduate, who had 22 of his points by halftime, made 11 of 16 shots, grabbed five rebounds and handed out three assists.

Sophomore Dante Kikuba (Framingham, Mass.) scored 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting, going 3-for-4 from 3-point range. The guard had 15 first-half points when he made all five of his shots.

Kikuba also had seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocked shots in 27 minutes.

Also in double figures were freshman Zach Taylor (Quincy, Mass.) and senior Justin Parsons (Portsmouth, R.I.) with 12 points each.

Graduate student Emerson Halbleib (Carmel, Ind.) contributed a career-high 11 assists to go along with four steals, six rebounds and six points while junior Keyth Key (Springfield, Mass.) and junior Alex Gonzalez (Peabody, Mass.) had seven rebounds each, helping BSU hold a 53-32 advantage on the boards.

Dean was led by senior A.J. Weston (Kansas City, Mo.) with 21 points while junior Tommy Huynh (Albuquerque, N.M.) had 15 and senior Charles Walker (Princeton, N.C.) 14.

The Bulldogs held a 4-2 lead early, but a Campbell 3-pointer with 18:48 left in the first half put the Bears up, 5-4, and they never trailed again.

BSU was ahead, 9-8, with 17:06 to go when it went on a 15-0 run in nearly four minutes to open a 24-8 advantage. Kikuba scored five of his points and Campbell added four in that spurt and Dean missed all seven of its shots.

The first lead above 20 points came with 10 minutes left in the half when two Kikuba foul shots made it 34-13. Two Campbell foul shots gave BSU a 43-13 lead with 7:26 to go.

The Bears' largest edge was 34 (49-15, 51-17 and 57-23). BSU was in front, 59-30, at halftime thanks to 62 percent shooting and 18 assists on 25 baskets.

Dean began the second half with six straight points to get within 59-36, but BSU had the lead over 30 points again with 13:45 left on a Taylor layup and the Bears coasted through the second half.

BSU just missed scoring at least 100 points for the third time this season.

While BSU made 52 percent of its shots, Dean managed to make only 41 percent. The Bears held the Bulldogs to 3-for-19 shooting from 3-point range.

BSU plays on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Wesleyan while Dean travels to Albertus Magnus College on Saturday at 3 p.m.