Mass, Romanko Lead Men's Basketball to 85-68 Win Over Wheaton

NORTON, Mass. -- Senior guard Fawaz Mass (Taunton, Mass.) scored a game-high 22 points and senior forward Greg Romanko (Mansfield, Mass.) added 15 to lead the visiting Bridgewater State University men's basketball team to an 85-68 victory over Wheaton College on Wednesday night at Emerson Gymnasium.

The Bears improve to 5-3 on the season, while the host Lyons fall to 4-4.

Mass connected on 6 of 10 field goal attempts and went 9-for-11 from the free throw line. Romanko knocked down a trio of three-pointers and was a perfect 4-for-4 at the charity stripe. He also added eight rebound and three assists.

Senior guards Rocky DeAndrade (Mansfield, Mass.) and Keyon Armstrong (Brockton, Mass.) chipped in with 12 points apiece for the Bears. DeAndrade finished 4-for-7 from the floor and 4-for-4 at the line. Armstrong added six rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and three steals. 

Bridgewater led from start to finish. The Bears used a 14-3 run to open up a double-digit advantage (19-7) with just under 11 minutes remaining in the first half. The lead would not get below ten points the rest of the way.

A three-pointer by Mass with 34 seconds left gave the Bears their biggest lead of the opening stanza, 46-25. The Lyons would connect on four free throws in the final 20 seconds to make it a 17-point game (46-29) at the break.

Mass scored 13 of his 22 points over the first 20 minutes.

The second half was evenly played with both teams scoring 39 points. The Lyons used a 7-0 run highlighted by five points from sophomore forward Duaka Ekwensi (Morris Plains, N.J.), to pull to within ten (50-40) with 16:22 remaining. The Bears, however, countered with back-to-back three-pointers by Armstrong and Romanko to extend the lead to 56-40. Wheaton got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

The Lyons were paced by 12 points from sophomore guard Nick Geremia (North Providence, R.I.), who ended the night a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line, while knocking down 3-of-5 from the floor. Junior guard Ryan Fogarty (Walpole, Mass.) and sophomore guard David Carbonello (Windham, N.H.) each finished with 11 points, while senior forward Quinton Dale (Winthrop, Mass.) chipped in 10. Carbonello led Wheaton with seven rebounds.

Bridgewater State finished the game shooting 48.1% (26-for-54) from the floor, hitting 7-of-16 (43.8%) from three-point range and sinking 26-of-36 (72.2%) of its chances from the free-throw line.

Wheaton struggled from three-point range, connecting on just one of its 14 attempts (7.1%), but knocked down 22-of-55 (40.0%) from the floor. The Lyons nearly matched the Bears from the charity stripe, sinking 23-of-32 (71.9%). 

Both teams are back in action on Saturday afternoon at one. The Bears travel to Endicott College while the Lyons head to Pine Manor College.

Notes: Mass has scored 20 or more points in five of the Bears' eight games this season including each of the last three.