College Basketball: Bridgewater State Men Hoping to Bounce Back

By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – The 2018-19 Bridgewater State University men’s basketball season began with 10 losses in the opening 12 games.

After struggling through November and December, the Bears recovered enough to go 6-6 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference and made it to the semifinal round of the tournament.

But there were issues with chemistry and defense throughout the season as BSU finished below .500 for the first time since 2012-13, going 9-18.

Four of the five starters, including a pair of All-MASCAC selections, return from that team, and the Bears hope that lessons were learned from a year ago.

“It was (a rough year),” said coach Joe Farroba, who is 12 wins shy of 400 at BSU. “The nucleus of that group is back, so the word is do they want to change their ways?

“We had a bad start. Chemistry is big, willing to share the ball, play together. You can’t have all scorers. I’ve tried to talk to that point. I’ve addressed that in terms of coming together as a group.”

The Bears open the season in Vermont by playing Middlebury College, ranked 13th in the national Division 3 preseason poll, on Friday at 8 p.m. BSU will then face SUNY Canton on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Middlebury Tip-Off Classic.

The returning starters include three seniors, Ryan Carney, of Easton, Rayshon Ward, of Plymouth, and Dimitri St. Louis, of Brockton, a Cardinal Spellman graduate, and sophomore point guard Admar Jaramillo, of Brockton, also a Cardinal Spellman graduate.

Carney led the Bears in scoring (17.4) and made the all-conference second team. Ward was named to the All-MASCAC second team for a second year in a row after averaging 17.1 points and 10.6 rebounds while St. Louis averaged 9.4 points.

Jaramillo, who moved into the starting lineup early in the season last year, was the MASCAC rookie of the year after finishing second with 65 steals and fifth with 80 assists while averaging 8.6 points.

Guard Alan Pettway, a transfer from Rhode Island College, will join them in the starting lineup.

“We have tremendous room for improvement. We have potential,” said Farroba. “Our three seniors, they’re our Big 3. So go them, so goes our team, to be very honest. Their leadership will be extremely important and hopefully they’re up for it.”

The top player off the bench figures to be sophomore guard Jose Monteiro Jr. of Brockton.

“In terms of the two scrimmages we’ve had, he’s been the most consistent player,” said Farroba. “He really adds to us. I’ve explained to him it isn’t who starts, it’s who finishes.”

Also coming off the bench will be sophomore Calvin Bridges, a solid defender; freshman Stanley Pierre-Louis, who will help in the front court; 6-foot-7 Max Schraut of Abington, who is currently sidelined with an injury; and guard Jonathan Mercado, who will miss six weeks with an injury.

The roster also includes swingmen Warren Clark of Pembroke and Mathew Romano; freshman Brian Duffy, sophomore David Laine, a transfer from St. Joseph’s in Maine, and freshman Andrew McAdam.

The Bears, who are picked to finish fourth in the MASCAC, play their home opener on Nov. 20 against UMass Boston.