Men's Basketball Escapes with 77-74 Victory over Bridgewater State

Release by Andrew Mowry

Framingham, Mass. - The Framingham State University Rams earned their first conference win of the season in a 77-74 victory at home over the Bridgewater State University Bears this evening in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action. 

Back-and-forth all evening, the Rams (8-6, 1-1 MASCAC) were able to put the Bears away on their last possession of the game when senior captain Tyrone Figueroa (Revere, Mass.) found a cutting Patrick Cuff (Medway, Mass.) in stride for the easy bucket to make it a three-point game with under four seconds left. 

"You can't go wrong with the ball in Figgy's hand.  I thought at worst, if we don't score they wouldn't get a very good attempt up in time," Head Coach of the Rams Paul Wholey said describing the final seconds of the game. 

Following a timeout by each team, the Bears guard Shawn Yard (Brockton, Mass.) turned the ball over as senior captain Rico DePaolis (Watertown, Mass.) came up with the steal to secure the Rams win. 

"At halftime we realized if we controlled the tempo and played our game we could win," DePaolis said afterwards. 

The Rams had a double-digit lead in the first-half. However the Bears (6-6, 1-1 MASCAC) made a run to make it a one-point game at the break. 

Yard had a game-high 20 points for the visitors who were outrebounded 41-29 by Framingham as the Rams held a 10-6 advantage in second chance points.

Freshman Tim Sheridan (Rutland, Mass.) had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Rams as Coach Wholey would say after the game, "Tim was a monster for us tonight."   

Along with Sheridan, Cuff chipped in with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds of his own.

"I think Framingham totally outplayed us tonight, they should be very happy.  They were tougher than we were," Head Coach of the Bears Joe Farroba said after the game.   Farroba would also say, "we get everyone's best game and I don`t think we matched their energy."

The Rams shot the ball well on Tuesday shooting nearly 51% from the field, 42% from three, and 88% from the foul-line.  Framingham did turn the ball over 26 times however, which led to 31 points for the Bears. 

Framingham will play again on Saturday when they travel to Fitchburg State at 3 p.m.  As for the Bears, they will be back to work on Thursday when they travel to UMass-Boston for a non-conference game at 7 p.m.