Men's Basketball looking to turn the tides against Bridgewater in MASCAC Semifinals

North Adams, MA- The MCLA Men's Basketball team will enter the MASCAC semifinal round for the first time since 2014 when the third seeded Trailblazers head to Bridgewater State on Thursday night to battle the #2 seed Bears.  MCLA is coming off an impressive win last night against Framingham State while the Bears earned a first round tournament bye.  The winner of Thursday's contest will advance to the MASCAC championship game on Saturday with a berth to the NCAA tournament at stake.  That game will be played at the highest remaining seed.  The other MASCAC semifinal pits #4 Fitchburg State traveling to top seeded Salem State.

The Bears have owned the Trailblazers of late having won the last eight meetings between the two programs.  BSU swept the season series from MCLA this season winning both games by double digits.  The Bears won at home back on January 10th by a score of 82-71 and then on January 31st in North Adams, defeated the Trailblazers 88-75.

For the Trailblazers to reverse the outcome, they'll have to handle Bear forward Joseph Carty.  The 6'6 forward has averaged 22.5 points and 16 rebounds in the two games against the Trailblazers.  Carty is not a one man show however as the Bears have plenty of offensive firepower.  6'6 guard Rayshon Ward scored 25 points in the opening game against MCLA while senior Rocky DeAndrade netted 20 points against the Trailblazers their last time out.  MCLA will have to find a way to slow down the BSU attack as the Bears have averaged 85 points per game in their two meetings this season.  BSU shot the ball well against MCLA converting on 47% of their field goal attempts, including a solid 17-44 performance from beyond the three point arc.  

On the offensive side of the ball for the Trailblazers, the Bears had trouble handling MCLA senior forward Adam Conquest.  He's averaging 22.5 points per game going against Carty and pulling down 9 rebounds.  Conquest has been the Trailblazers go to guy in the low post for the second half of the season.  MCLA has used a balanced scoring attack against BSU as Mike Demartinis, Keiland Cross, Noah Yearsley, and Ki-Shawn Monroe have all gone for double figures against the Bears.

While MCLA has given up a lot of points to the Bears, they haven't had issues putting the ball in the basket either.  MCLA has shot 45% in their two meetings and averaged 73 points per game.  The Bears did however hold MCLA to just 39% shooting in the Tinsley Center earlier this season.

Fans can expect to see a high scoring affair between these two athletic teams who like to push the ball up the floor when the situation arises.  One thing to look for coming out of the previous two meetings, was that Bridgewater owned a decisive edge at the free throw line.  The Bears went 27-37 from the stripe in the two games, while MCLA made just 13 of 26 attempts.  

The game will be streamed live on mascac.tv and athletics.mcla.edu

Fans can also follow along on twitter @MCLAAthletics for updates.