By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The start of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference season was not a pleasant time for the Bridgewater State University women's basketball team.

Picked as the preseason favorite, the Bears were 0-1 after a surprising double-digit home loss to Salem State University back on Jan. 8.

From that rough beginning, however, BSU became unbeatable in the conference, and the Bears were able to author a happy ending to its MASCAC season nearly two months later.

The Bears are the 2024-25 MASCAC champions after defeating defending champion Framingham State University, 76-65, before a near-capacity crowd at the Tinsley Center Saturday afternoon.

After going 9-1 to win the regular-season title, BSU swept two games in the tournament and is headed to the NCAA Division III tourney.

The Bears will learn their opponent and and the site of the game during the Selection Show on Monday at 2:30 p.m.

Junior guard Haley Burchhardt (Schenectady, N.Y.), a transfer from Utica University, had the best game of her college career and was named the tournament Most Valuable Player.

Burchhardt had a career-high 26 points, making a career-best six 3-pointers to lead BSU (19-6).

The Bears enter the NCAAs on a 12-game winning streak, matching the program's longest since the 2005-06 season.

The last loss to Salem State in early January is a distant memory as BSU quickly rebounded and went on a roll, one that has landed the Bears in the NCAAs.

"They're all super special," said coach Bridgett Casey of MASCAC championships. "The first was great, the five in a row were great, two years ago the comeback that we had was great.

"This one, we fumbled the first MASCAC game of the year and from that point we kept building. The six seniors weren't going out any other way."

BSU is headed to the NCAAs for the 12th time in program history and the eighth time with Casey as the coach.

The Bears won the MASCAC tourney for an eighth time and earned their second title in three years. BSU was in the MASCAC final for a fourth consecutive season, facing Framingham State for a third time in that stretch.

The Rams (14-10) led only once at 4-3 just 2:10 into the game and the Bears rode their defense and the sizzling shooting of Burchhardt to the championship.

"We just had to play our game, not overcomplicate things," said Burchhardt. "We had to let it come to us. We have a solid team, great talent and great energy. We knew we just had to play our game."

Burchhardt grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and made 6 of 9 shots from 3-point range and had four assists.

Her previous scoring high this season was 16 points against Westfield State after getting 21 on two occasions while at Utica. Burchhardt never made more than two 3-points this season for the Bears.

Freshman Chloe Azoff (Sandwich, Mass.) was the only other BSU player in double figures with 11 points in 13 minutes off the bench. She had three 3-pointers and provided a spark.

"All year, like today, there was always somebody stepping up in a big key role," said Casey. "Today, it was Haley having a great game. She has been a shooter, an off-guard who can handle.

"She was more in a point guard role. She hit those first couple today, though, and was feeling it.''

Burchhardt had 17 first-half points, hitting five 3-pointers, to get the Bears going.

"I really did not think I was going to be dropping those,'' she said. "In warmups I wasn't really hitting. After the first shot I hit, I knew I had to keep putting them up."

Burchhardt scored the Bears' first 12 points as they jumped to a 12-6 lead, making four 3-pointers in just under six minutes.

Azoff hit a 3-pointer and Burchhardt made two foul shots later for a 19-13 BSU lead after one quarter.

Framingham State shot 67 percent in the second quarter but was down, 42-33, at halftime.

The Bears opened a 12-point lead in the third quarter before the Rams closed to 54-48 on a jumper by junior Kiara Cerruti (Canton, Mass.) with 2:32 left.

But senior Jessica D'Amours (Feeding Hills, Mass.) made a layup and senior Kylie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass.) hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to put BSU in front, 59-48, going into the final 10 minutes.

A 3-pointer by Burchhardt and a layup by Grassi gave the Bears their largest lead at 71-57 with 4:58 remaining.

Framingham State was not able to get any closer than nine the rest of the way as the BSU defense made things difficult for the Rams.

"We had a really good practice Friday, they were really locked in," said Casey. "They were ready, especially the seniors. There was no other way they were going to go out."

Grassi, who was playing in her 100th career game, had nine points and six rebounds plus three assists and two steals for BSU. She eclipsed the Bears' all-time record for made field goals set by BSU Hall of Famer Carolyn Parsley in 1986. Grassi now has 536 field goals in her career as she surpassed Parsley's mark of 535.

Graduate student Kylee Piche (Bridgewater, Mass.) had six assists, five rebounds and two steals. Piche increased her career assist total to 265 as she moved past Michael Cosby (262 assists) into ninth place on the Bears' all-time list.

Senior Arielle Cleveland (Groveland, Mass.) contributed nine points and nine rebounds and sophomore Sophie Bradbury (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and Mairead Gallagher (Bridgewater, Mass.) played key minutes off the bench.

Senior Katherine Haselton (Greenfield, Mass.) led Framingham State with 17 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Scoring 12 points each for the Rams were freshman Jacqueline Schels (Hamburg, N.J.), freshman Faith Greene (Worcester, Mass.) and Cerruti.

The Bears are 46-7 at the Tinsley Center since the 2021-22 season and went 13-3 at home this season, the most wins since the 2021-22 season.

Now it's off to the NCAAs where the Bears nearly upset Messiah in Pennsylvania two years ago.

"Very excited to be part of that, especially with this group," said Burchhardt. "This group has so much talent."

Said Casey, "The experience of being there two years ago was great. It doesn't matter where we go because we're ready."