Courtesy Bridgewater State Sports Information

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – Senior forward Nicholas Motta (Fairhaven, Mass.) tallied 24 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals to lead the Bridgewater State University men's basketball team to an 88-77 MASCAC Tournament Quarterfinal win over visiting Worcester State on Tuesday evening at the Tinsley Center in Bridgewater.

The third-seeded Bears, who withstood a furious second half Lancer rally, improve to 17-9 on the season.  Bridgewater will head to MCLA on Thursday night at 7:00 PM to take on the number two seed Trailblazers in the tournament semifinals.  Worcester State, the number six seed, ends the season with a record of 6-20.

Motta scored 18 of his team-high 24 points in the first half as the Bears opened up a 41-28 advantage at the intermission.  Bridgewater held the edge in play over the first five minutes of the second stanza as the lead ballooned to 19 points (58-39) with 15 minutes remaining.

Trailing 60-42, Worcester went on a 19-5 run over the next five minutes to pull to within four points at 65-61. Senior forward Dave Douillette (Bridgewater, Mass.), who finished with a game-high 27 points, was the catalyst for the Lancers as he scored ten points during the run including a pair of three-pointers.

Back-to-back three-pointers by BSU sophomore forward Anthony Fortes (East Providence, R.I.) and senior guard Corey Connor (Providence, R.I.) quickly upped the Bears' lead to 71-61.  Two more trifectas from Douillette were sandwiched around a Judah Jackson (Everett, Mass.) free throw as the Lancers got to within five (72-67) with 6:23 left to play.

Worcester was unable to get any closer the rest of the way as Connor knocked down his fifth trey of the evening to make it an eight-point game.  Worcester sophomore forward Monte Griffin (Boston, Mass.) answered Connor's three with a layup, but Fortes pushed the BSU advantage back up to nine, 78-69, with a conventional three-point play at the 5:29 mark.  The Lancers would get as close as seven points three times over the next minute and a half, but Bridgewater ran off six straight points to put the game out of reach.

Fortes finished with 18 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Connor connected for 17 points on 5 of 8 shooting from behind the arc.  Jackson added 12 points, five boards and three assists.  The Bears shot 50% from the floor including an impressive 11-for-15 (73%) from three-point range.

With his 12 points, Jackson moved past John Hickey (1,425 points) and Mike Morris (1,427 points) into eighth place on Bridgewater's all-time scoring list.  Jackson now has 1,428 points in his four seasons at BSU.

Douillette paced the Lancers with a double-double as he pulled down ten rebounds to go along with his 27 points.  Freshman guard Emmanuel Ferraud (Worcester, Mass.) chipped in with 18 points, five boards and three assists, while junior guard Frank Stephenson (Fall River, Mass.) notched 13 points, eight assists, three rebounds and three steals.  Worcester shot 53% (31-59) for the game, 59% (20-34) in the second half.

Courtesy Westfield State Sports Information

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Sophomore guard Lee Vazquez (Attleboro, MA/Woonsocket, RI, High School) scored a career-high 27 points and senior forward Chris Jurkowski (Belchertown) and freshman point guard Andrew Morgan (Somerset, NJ) each had 17 points to lead Westfield State University to a 76-57 victory over Framingham State University in the MASCAC tournament quarterfinals Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Westfield (12-14), advances to the semifinals where it will play at No. 1 seed Salem State on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Framingham finishes 10-15.

Vazquez picked up where he left off last week when he was the MASCAC player of the week. In the past three games the non-stop 5-6 guard has poured in 76 points (27-24-25).

Vazquez scored 17 of his points in the second half when the Owls were clinging on to a six-point lead, 41-35, with 13:26 remaining after leading by 18 points late in the first half.

With both teams saddled with foul trouble, Westfield responded with a 21-2 blitzkrieg to take a commanding 62-37 lead with 6:38 remaining. Vazquez scored 12 points during the big run, including two deep threes.

Jurkowski led the Owls to a 33-24 halftime lead with 13 first-half points, including a 3-for-3 effort from 3-point range.

Tough defense by both teams had the Owls only on top 12-7 midway through the first half. Sparked by the scoring of Jurkowski, Vazquez and Morgan, along with a long 3-point bomb from reserve guard Eric Vargaz, Westfield led by 18 points, 32-14, with 2:45 left in the first half.

But Framingham made a comeback as the Owls did not record a field goal for six-plus minutes until Jurkowski made a driving layup with 16:31 remaining in the game.

The teams had nearly identical field goal and rebounding statistics. Westfield was 22 for 56 from the floor, including 6 for 16 from 3-point range, while Framingham was 20 for 57. The Rams won the battle of the boards, 42-41.

But Westfield only committed 10 turnovers against Framingham’s harassing defense, while the Rams had 19 turnovers. And from the foul line Westfield was 26 for 34, including 19 for 21 in the second half; Framingham struggled with 13 for 26 effort.

Morgan was nearly perfect from the charity stripe (15 for 16) and committed zero turnovers while directing the Owl offense. He had five assists and two steals while Vazquez finished with four assists and three steals.

The Owls posted the 19-point victory despite their leading scorer this season – sophomore center Matt Devine (Pembroke) – finished with zero points. Devine – who fouled out with 5:27 remaining - did have a game highs of 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Junior guard Marcus Mclaurin (Braintree) led the Rams with 24 points. Senior guard Royce Veal (Dorchester) was the only other player in double figures with 12.