Worcester State 87, Nichols 76
Worcester, MA --- Senior Maurice Horton
(Detroit, MI/Burncoat) notched his 19th career double-double with
25 points and 15 rebounds to help propel Worcester State to a
season-opening 87-76 victory over Nichols in the second semifinal
of the Worcester County Classic hosted by WPI.
The Lancers advance to the championship game to face off against
WPI tomorrow at 7:30 while the Bison will play Becker in the
consolation bracket at 5:30. The Engineers defeated the Hawks 85-80
in the first semifinal earlier this evening.
WSC was also led by junior Ryan Testagrossa
(Athol, MA) who recorded 14 points while freshman Tim
Henault (Lunenburg, MA) tacked on 13 points. Senior
Pat Hamilton (Templeton, MA) had a great
all-around game with 11 points, a team-best four steals to go along
with four caroms.
Nichols was paced by senior Bryan Riley (W. Boylston, MA) who
poured in a team-best 21 points with five assists as he went
13-for-15 from the charity stripe. Classmate Chris Paquin (Barre,
MA) registered 15 points and eight rebounds while fellow senior
Ryan Wilcox (W. Granby, CT) chipped in with 14 points for the
Bison.
Worcester State started with a quick 13-6 lead to open up the
first 4 1/2 minutes of play, but Nichols used a full-court zone
press to pressure the Lancers and go on a 10-2 run and take a 16-15
edge at 12:22.
Over the next two minutes there were a pair of ties and two lead
changes before Paquin and Justin Aldrich (Douglas, MA) jacked
consecutive three-pointers to help Nichols go up 25-19 with nine
minutes left in the first half.
WSC inched their way back to within one point with 6:22 left
(27-26), but the Bison held the Lancers scoreless for the next 3
1/2 minutes of play to open up their largest lead, 36-27, on a trey
by Justin Kuntz (Wallingford, CT) at 2:40.
The Blue and Gold responded with a 9-0 run to close out the period
as Horton added an exclamation point with a three-point
buzzer-beater, following a Lancer timeout to tie up the game at
36-36 at the intermission.
In the first stanza, Worcester State scored 24 of their 36 points
in the paint and they used eight offensive boards to score 10
second chance baskets. Nichols shot 10-for-18 from the field (56.6
%) and went 6-for-9 from beyond the arc.
The Lancers opened up the first six minutes of the second period
outscoring Nichols 21-6 as they took a 57-42 lead with 16:11 left
in the contest.
Both squads continued to score over the next eight minutes of
play, but WSC stayed on top as they extended their largest
advantage (69-52).
It was at that point that Nichols went on a 20-6 spurt over a
stretch of five minutes to close the gap to 75-66 with 3:40 left in
the game.
After the two teams committed three straight turnovers over the
next 50 seconds, WSC took control of the game as they canned three
free throws to bring the lead back up to 10 at 2:06 (78-68).
Nichols got no closer than eight as the Lancers converted 9-of-12
shots from the charity stripe to ice the game and preserve the edge
in the waning seconds of the game.
The two teams were even in points off of turnovers (25-25) while
Worcester State dominated the paint (42-24) and the glass (38-27)
including a 14-4 edge on offensive rebounds.