No. 1 seed Salem State and No. 2 seed Westfield State both earned victories in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) semifinals on Thursday night. The Vikings will host the Owls in the MASCAC Championship game on Saturday, February 23 at 1 p.m.

#1 Salem State 93, #4 Bridgewater State 80 Box Score

SALEM, Mass. - Sean Bryan (Lowell, Mass.) poured in 32 points, with 10 rebounds and four steals as #1 seed Salem State defeated #4 Bridgewater State 93-80 in the semifinals of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Men's Basketball Tournament. The Vikings (17-9) advance to the MASCAC Championship, which will be played at 1:00 PM on Saturday, February 23 at Twohig Gymnasium.  

The teams battled evenly over the first nine minutes until Bryan drained a three to give the Vikings a six-point lead, 19-13 at the 11:01 mark, forcing Bridgewater State (9-18) to call a timeout.

Salem State continued to build on their lead in the closing minutes of the half. Admar Jaramillo (Brockton, Mass.) went up for a layup and after his shot was rejected by Fern Bernard (Malden, Mass.), Temi Bailey (West Springfield, Mass.) found Hakeem Animashaun (Dedham, Mass.) in transition to make the score 32-21 with 5:40 left.  

The Vikings entered the halftime with a 44-33 advantage. Salem State shot 47.4% (FG 18-38) from the field while Bridgewater State was 42.4% (FG 14-33) from the floor. The Vikings managed 26 points in the paint with the help of Animashaun and Bailey.

Salem State had three players in double-figures. Bailey and Animashaun each had 11 points and Bryan scored 10 points. For the Bears, Ryan Carney (Easton, Mass.) scored 11 points (FG 4-8, 3PT 3-4) and Rayshon Ward (Fayetteville, N.C.) added nine points and seven rebounds.  

Early in the second half, Bridgewater State countered with an 11-4 run, trimming the deficit to four, 48-44 as Ward hit a three at the 17:08 mark.

Later, Ward missed a three-point attempt, but Dimitri St. Louis (Brockton, Mass.) recovered the rebound and made the putback to tie the game at 55 with 14:02 left in the second half as the Bears erased the 11-point halftime deficit.

In response, Bryan exploded with his own 10-0 run, nailing back-to-back threes while converting twice in the post as Salem State built the lead back to double-digits. 

The Vikings continued to surge, as Alex De La Rosa (Boston, Mass.) pulled up for three over Nick Crocker (East Falmouth, Mass.),  giving Salem State an 81-70 lead with 3:40 remaining. The basket started the Vikings on a 13-3 run as they cruised to a 93-80 victory.  

The Vikings' Animashaun added a double-double of 18 points (FG 8-11) and 12 rebounds while Bailey scored 15 points (FG 6-13, 3PT 1-1).

For Bridgewater State, Carney notched 27 points (FG 9-15, 3PT 6-9) and Ward hit for 24 points (FG 11-21, 3PT 2-3) and nine rebounds.

#2 Westfield State 78, #3 Fitchburg State 72 Box Score

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State sophomore guard Christopher Prophet (Central/Springfield, Mass.) scored 24 points and handed out four assists to lead #2 Westfield State past #3Fitchburg State, 78-72, in the MASCAC Semifinals in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Woodward Center on Thursday evening.

With the win, the Owls advance to the MASCAC Championship game for the first time since 2015, when they won the title.  The championship game will be played at the site of the highest remaining seed on Saturday, pending the outcome of tonight's #1 Salem State - #4 Bridgewater State game.

Westfield improves to 16-10 on the season, while Fitchburg's season ends with a 13-14 mark.

The Owls got out to a 40-36 halftime lead after an opening stanza in which neither team could establish a strong foothold.

Westfield held a 59-58 lead after Fitchburg's Jonathan Perez scored on a drive with 7:01 left in regulation.  The Owls edged away to lead 66-58 on a pair of Jauch Green, Jr. (Cromwell/Hartford, Conn.) free throws with 4:05 left.

From there the pace of the game slowed, and the Falcons trimmed the lead back down to three on several occasions, the last with 38 seconds left on a Perez free throw.  But on the ensuing possession, Westfield beat the Falcons over the top, and Vawn Lord's (West Springfield/Amherst, Mass.)  layup gave the Owls a five point cushion they would not relinquish, with Prophet making four free throws in the closing seconds to secure the win.

Westfield got 16 points and 10 rebounds from Green, and eight points and 10 rebounds from Lord.   Marcus Collins (Rindge and Latin/Cambridge, Mass.) and Malik Pouncy (Springfield Commonwealth Acad. / Mattapan, Mass.) each scored 11 in a balanced team effort for the Owls.

Fitchburg was led by 19 points from Andre Ruff, and got 13 from Nicholas Tracy.