Men's basketball drops nail biter to Salem State

North Adams, MA- The visiting Salem State men's basketball team clinched the MASCAC regular season title with a hard fought 54-53 win over the MCLA Trailblazers on senior day in North Adams.  The Vikings finish the MASCAC season at 9-3 and will earn the top seed into next week's conference playoffs.  MCLA wraps up conference play at 5-7 and will be the fifth seed and play an opponent still to be determined.

The Vikings (16-8 overall) received 15 points from Hamed Akanni and 11 points from Ryan Salvador off the bench to lead the team.  MCLA was paced by Jeremic Bennett's 15 points while Ramon Viches ended with 14.

After Salem led 23-18 at the break, the Trailblazers opened the closing half on a 14-0 run to take charge.  MCLA held Salem without a point for over eight minutes spanning both halves.  The run forced Salem to call timeout and they quickly responded.  With the score at 32-23 in favor of MCLA, the Vikings embarked on a 14-0 run of their own to regain the lead at 37-32 with still 11:20 to play. 

Salem would be up by eleven points with 4:02 left to play at 53-42 before MCLA made a closing run.  The hosts would hold Salem to just one point over the remainder of the game.  MCLA chipped away and when Viches knocked down a three pointer with 2:09 left, MCLA was down just 54-51.

Tyriq Rochester's follow up slam brought the Trailblazers to within a point with just 1:09 remaining.  After the team's traded turnovers, MCLA regained possession when Salem was whistled for a travel with just 10 seconds left.  Viches had a wide open look at a game winning three, but it was off the mark.  MCLA corralled the rebound, but couldn't get a final shot off.

Trailblazer Ray Viches rode the senior day momentum as he scored MCLA's first nine points to keep his team in it early on.  His three pointer ignited five straight Trailblazer points to tie the score at 12 apiece.  Salem would lead by as many as seven points at 23-16 on Nicholas Grassa's drive to the hoop.  Each team would go cold over the final three minutes of the half as John Jones' jumper with 58 ticks left was the only scoring and Salem led 23-18 at the half.

Neither team shot well in the opening twenty minutes.  MCLA was 6-25 (24%) from the floor, while the Vikings were 9-29 (31%).  The Trailblazers committed 12 first half turnovers while Salem had 8.

Prior to the game, MCLA honored their five seniors in John Jones, Viches, James Hunter, Tyshawn McGee, and Rashard Taylor.