Mass, Carty Lead Men's Basketball to 73-66 Win over Wheaton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – Junior guard Fawaz Mass (Taunton, Mass.) scored a career-high 26 points and sophomore forward Joseph Carty (Natick, Mass.) notched a double-double with 20 points and a career-best 19 rebounds to lead the Bridgewater State University men's basketball team to a 73-66 victory over Wheaton College on Saturday afternoon at the Tinsley Center.

The Bears improve to 3-5 on the season with the win, while the Lyons slip to 5-3 overall.

Mass connected on 9 of 13 field goals attempts and also added six rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal. Carty went 8-for-10 at the free throw line and recorded a pair of steals.

Wheaton senior guard Billy Battaglia (Simsbury, Conn.) tallied 28 points, including the 1,000th of his career, to lead all scorers. Battaglia went 10-for-26 from the floor and 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

The Bears used a 13-0 run during a five-minute stretch of the first half to open up a double-digit advantage, 24-10, with 6 ½ minutes remaining in the period. Carty scored six points during the spurt.

The Bears seemed in control of the game, leading 28-16 as the clock ticked under three minute in the first half. The Lyons, however, outscored the Bears 13-3 to close out the half as the teams headed to the locker-room with Bridgewater holding a 31-29 advantage. Freshman forward Riley Tetreault (Walpole, Mass.) began and ended the spurt with a pair of three-pointers to highlight the Wheaton rally.

Carty paced BSU with nine points and ten rebounds in the opening stanza while Mass scored eight points and sophomore guard Rocky DeAndrade (Mansfield, Mass.) added seven.

Battaglia tallied ten points over the first 20 minutes to lead the Lyons.

The Lyons took their first lead since the opening minutes of the contest on a Battaglia layup with 15:40 showing on the second half clock. The Bears answered with a 8-0 run over the next four minutes, led by four points apiece from Carty and Mass, to jump ahead 48-40.

The game was evenly played the rest of the way with Bridgewater holding a 66-58 advantage as the clocked ticked under two minutes. A Ryan Carney (Easton, Mass.) baseline layup followed by a pair of Carty free throws extended the BSU advantage to 70-58 with under a minute left to play. Bridgewater would hold on for the 73-66 victory.

The Bears shot 44% (27-61) for the game including a 62.5% (15-24) clip in the second half. Bridgewater did not make three-point field goal as the Bears went 0-for-11 from behind the arc.

The Lyons struggled with their shooting throughout the game as they finished 24-for-69 (35%) from the floor and 6-for-21 (29%).

Bridgewater made 28 trips (19-for-28) to the free throw line compared to 14 (12-for-14) for the visitors.

The Bears are off until later in the month when they compete at the Land of Magic Classic hosted by Embry-Riddle University in Daytona, Florida. Bridgewater takes on  Brockport State on December, 28th (5:00 PM) and John Carroll on December 30th (1:00 PM). The Lyons host Pine Manor College next Saturday afternoon at one in their final game before the semester break.