Framingham State, Worcester State Move on to MASCAC Women's Basketball Semifinals
After winning their quarterfinal games on Tuesday night, the Framingham State Rams and Worcester State Lancers are moving on to the semifinals of the MASCAC Women's Basketball Tournament to be played on Thursday.
After winning their quarterfinal games on Tuesday night, the Framingham State Rams and Worcester State Lancers are moving on to the semifinals of the MASCAC Women's Basketball Tournament to be played on Thursday.
#3 Worcester State 78, #6 Salem State 63
WORCESTER, Mass. -- The third seeded Worcester State Lancers have advanced to the semifinals of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic (MASCAC) Tournament after winning their quarterfinal matchup over the sixth seed Salem State Vikings Tuesday night, 78-63.
With the win, the Lancers will face the second seed Bridgewater State Bears on Thursday night in the semifinals. During the regular season, the two teams split the series.
Bianca Lanford (Worcester, Mass.) led the way for Worcester State with 18 points and 13 rebounds while teammate Shannen El-Qasem (Rutland, Mass.) and Julie Frankian (Millbury, Mass.) added 14 and 12 points, respectively. For the Vikings, Rachael Carter (Merrimack, N.H.) scored a game-high 27 points with five rebounds and five steals.
The Lancers jumped out to a quick five point in the first on a jump shot by Frankian and three pointer by Kiesha Jones. Carter helped cut the deficit to two on back-to-back free throws while draining three a few seconds later to make it 7-5 in favor of Worcester State.
The two teams went back and forth in the first with Carter capitalizing on two Worcester State turnovers to take the lead 22-19. Sharing scores to finish up the half, Frankian would put the Lancers up 37-30 on a layup with only six seconds left before halftime.
Coming out of the break, the two teams shared baskets, but it was three straight scores by Langford that would put Worcester State up for good. The closest the Vikings would get to cutting the deficit was on a three by Carter to make it 59-51, but the Lancers were too much increasing their lead to a final of 78-63.
The win brings Worcester State to a 17-9 record on the year for a trip to the MASCAC Semifinals while the Vikings close out their season 5-21.
#4 Framingham State 60, #5 Fitchburg State 47
Framingham, Mass.- The Framingham State University women’s basketball team defeated Fitchburg State in the quarterfinal round of the 2015 MASCAC Tournament by a score of 60-47 on Tuesday night in Framingham. The Rams advance to the semifinal round at top seeded Westfield State on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m.
The Rams were led by senior Nicole Bostic (Easton/Oliver Ames) who scored 18 points and collected 7 rebounds while freshman Casie Thurber (Springfield/Sabis Int.) added 10 points and 5 boards. Sophomore Alycia Rackliffe (Feeding Hills/Agwam) added 11 rebounds and a game-high 7 blocks and freshman Lauren Donahue (Attelboro/Bishop Feehan) contributed 8 assists.
The Falcons were paced by senior Kristen Enright (Westminster/ Oakmont) who registered a double-double with a game-high 21 points and 12 rebounds. Senior Rebecca Fluet (Fitchburg) added 15 points for Fitchburg State.
The Falcons opened up the scoring in the third minute of play when Enright hit a free throw to put Fitchburg up 1-0. The Rams answered with an 11-0 run capped by a Thurber layup with 15 minutes to play in the first. The Falcons would slowly chip away scoring the final two bucket of the half to cut the Rams lead to 33-27.
Fitchburg came out of the break with a 10-3 run finished off by an Enright bucket to tie the game at 36. After trading the next two scores, Thurber gave the Rams the lead for good with a layup with just over 10 minutes and spark an 8-0 run for the Rams. Sarah Palace’s (Auburn) layup would put the Rams up 10 with just over 7 minutes to go. Fluet made two free throws to cut the lead to 3 with just over 4 minutes to play but a Johanna Annunziata (Auburn/ Miller School) trey followed by a Bostic layup would stretch the Rams lead to 55-47 and they would score the final 5 points of the contest.
Fitchburg struggled from the field shooting just 27 percent to the Rams 37 percent. The Falcons were just 6-of-17 from the line while the Rams converted 12-of-16 attempts.
The Rams improve to 16-8 for the season and advance to the semifinal round of the MASCAC tournament. The Falcons season comes to a close with a 13-12 record.
Courtesy of Framingham State Sports Information