Worcester State 72, Framingham State 69
Worcester, MA --- Junior Brandon Fortes (Pawtucket, RI) registered a season-high 20 points while classmate Maurice Horton poured in 27 points with 11 rebounds to help lift Worcester State to a 72-69 victory this evening over Framingham State in MASCAC basketball action.
With the win, the Lancers improve to 8-7 overall and 2-1 in conference play while the Rams slip to 9-8 and 1-2 in MASCAC play.
Horton notched his 12th double-double in 15 games this season as he scored 17 of his 27 points in the opening half of play.
Framingham State junior forward Josue Almodovar (Holyoke, MA) tied his career best with 31 points as he passed the 1,000 point milestone and moved into 16th on the Rams record book passing Mich Gonsalves who tallied 1,007 points from 1977-79.
The Lancers were also paced junior Elijah Sims (Worcester, MA) who added 10 points with five rebounds while classmate Patrick Hamilton (Templeton, MA) chipped in with seven points and seven boards.
Junior Roderick Jackson (Cambridge, MA) led the Rams as he gobbled up a season-best 15 rebounds with seven points and four blocks. Teammates Bill Carey (Abington, MA) and Darius Yarrell (Brockton, MA) each recorded 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Worcester State opened the contest with a commanding 26-8 lead over the first ten minutes of play before Framingham State whittled down the score to six points seconds before the end of the opening stanza (38-32). Fortes nailed a buzzer-beater trey to make it a nine point game as both teams headed to the locker room for the intermission.
After the break, the Lancers built the lead back up to 12 points with 14:23 left to play and led 56-46 with 11:39 on the clock. From that point, the Rams went on a 16-3 run over the next six minutes of play- with 12 points from Almodovar - to go up 62-59, ending with an Almodovar trey with 4:45 remaining in regulation.
Fortes answered with a three-pointer of his own to tie the score and WSC went on a 4-1 run with four points by Sims to give the Blue and Gold a 66-63 lead.
The Rams then hit three straight free throws to tie the score with 2 ½ minutes left in the contest. The game remained scoreless for the next minute of play as Worcester State missed two opportunities at the charity stripe to go ahead while Framingham State blew a chance of their own at the line before Carey hit a pair of free throws to give the visitors a two point advantage.
A Horton layup tied the score 68-68 at which point the Framingham bench called a timeout to stop the clock and draw up a play to respond, but the Rams were out of timeouts. Fortes then canned his two free throws from the technical foul to give the Lancers the lead for good.
With Worcester State leading 72-69 with seven seconds remaining, Yarrell tried to tie the game on a buzzer-beater, but his attempt sailed just to the right of the basket.
Both teams were about even with Worcester State owning a 41-38 advantage in rebounds, points off turnovers (19-17) and second chance points (16-10) while the Rams had 22 points inside the key compared to the Lancers 20.
In the first half Framingham shot 25% (4-for-16) from beyond the arc and responded to connect for 50% (4-for-8) from downtown while they were 48% (13-for-27) from the field in the second half.
The Lancers shot 42% of their field goals for the entire game while they struggled from the free throw in the second period going 8-for-20 in the stanza.
Both teams will continue conference play on Tuesday with 7:30 tip-offs when Worcester State heads north to Fitchburg State while the Rams will entertain Salem State.