Men's Basketball to Take On Cabrini College in NCAA Tournament Opening Round

2014 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket (PDF)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The NCAA Division III Tournament pairings have been announced and the Bridgewater State University men's basketball team will travel to Radnor, Pennsylvania on Friday night (7:30) to take on the Cavaliers of Cabrini College in an opening round contest.

Cabrini (25-1) is hosting a four-team pod at the Dixon Center with Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (23-4) taking on Bowdoin College (19-5) in the other first round match-up at 5:30.  The winners will advance to play a second round game on Saturday evening.

Bridgewater State will be making its’ seventh NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth in the last six years.  The previous six trips to the national tournament came in 1983, 1999, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The Bears enter the tournament with an overall mark of 16-11.  Bridgewater earned the automatic qualifier to the NCAAs by winning the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Tournament championship on Saturday with an 83-73 victory over top-seeded Salem State University.  The Bears were the #2 seed at the MASCAC Tournament after posting an 8-4 conference mark during the regular season.

The BSU men's basketball team is under the watchful eye of 22-year head coach, Joe Farroba.  The four-time (1998, 2009, 2010, 2012) MASCAC Coach of the Year sports a career mark of 315-269 (.539) including a conference regular season record of 160-104 (.606).  Farroba’s 315 wins are by far the most in program history as he is the only Bridgewater coach to reach not only the 300-win milestone but also the 200-win milestone.

On the court, Bridgewater State is led by a trio of All-MASCAC selections including junior forwards Michael Lofton (Mansfield, Mass.) and Kyle Gibson (Franklin, Mass.), and senior guard Brendan Monteiro (Brockton, Mass.).

Lofton is averaging 16.6 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.7 blocked shots while shooting 64% (179-278) from the floor.  He currently leads the MASCAC and ranks among the top five nationally in field goal percentage.  Lofton is also second in the conference in blocks, third in both scoring and rebounding, and sixth in steals.  The MVP of the MASCAC Tournament, Lofton reached the 1,000-point milestone in the tournament championship game win over Salem.  He currently ranks 27th all-time at BSU in scoring with 1,013 points.

Gibson has notched 13.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game this season, while shooting 53% (138-263) from the field .  He ranks second in the conference field goal percentage, eighth in blocked shots (0.8 bpg) and tenth in scoring.

Monteiro enters the tournament with per game totals of 16.1 points and 2.3 assists to go along with shooting percentages of 41% (43-106) from behind the arc and 77% (86-112) at the free throw line.  He leads the MASCAC in three-point shooting and is fifth in free throw shooting and sixth in scoring.  Monteiro has amassed 1,140 points in four seasons including two at Wentworth.

Under the guidance of sixth-year head coach Marcus Kahn, Cabrini advanced to the NCAA Tournament after capturing its fifth consecutive Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) crown with a 96-79 championship game win over Neumann.  The sixth-ranked Cavaliers will be making their fifth straight NCAA appearance and 12th overall.

Kahn has received the CSAC's top coaching honor in each of his six seasons on the Blue and White's bench as he has guided the Cavaliers to a 152-26 (.854) record since arriving in 2008.  In 211, Cabrini reached the national championship game, falling to Wisconsin-Whitewater, 63-60.

Cabrini is led by junior guard Aaron Walton-Moss (Camden, N.J.) and senior forward Fran Rafferty (King of Prussia, Pa.).  Walton-Moss, the CSAC Player of the Year, is averaging 24.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. He is also shooting 58% (209-360) from the floor and 78% (111-142) at the free throw line.  Rafferty, who joined Walton-Moss on the All-CSAC First Team, checks in with per game totals of 14.2 points and 4.7 rebounds.  He is shooting a stellar 47% (63-134) from behind the arc and 81% (50-62) at the charity stripe.

The Cavaliers rank among the top five scoring teams in Division III men’s basketball as they are averaging over 90 (90.7) points per game.  Walton-Moss is fifth among the national leaders in scoring with his 24.9 points per game.