Motta Leads Men's Hoops to 88-77 MASCAC Tournament Win over Worcester

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 Goodwin (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.

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.

Notes: Jackson moved past John Hickey (1,425 points) and Mike Morris (1,427 points) into eighth place on Bridgewater's all-time scoring list with his 12 points.  Jackson now has 1,428 points in his four seasons at BSU.  With his five three-pointers, Connor now has 80 on the season which is one shy of the Bears' single-season mark of 81 set by Joe O'Connor in 1992-93.