FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Senior guard Royce Veal (Dorchester, Mass.) picked up his second double-double of the season with 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Framingham State University men's basketball team to a 74-70 victory tonight over Bridgewater State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) game.
With the win, the Rams improve to 5-7 on the year and 2-0 in the MASCAC, while the loss drops the Bears to 7-5 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
Veal led all players with career-highs in both points and rebounds and was just two assists shy of a triple double as he recorded eight assists in the game to go along with five steals. He connected on 8-of-16 from the floor including 6-of-13 in the second half when he scored 14 of his 26 points.
Joining Veal in double figures was junior Marcus Mclaurin (Braintree, Mass.) and freshman Tyrone Figueroa (Revere, Mass.). Mclaurin and Figueroa each recorded career-highs in points with Figueroa scoring 16 on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor and Mclaurin adding 14. Senior forward Brendan Carter (South Boston, Mass.) chipped in eight points to go along with a career-high 13 boards.
The Bears were led by senior center Samuel Johnson (North Chelmsford, Mass.) who hit 7-of-10 from the floor en route to his 14 points. The senior forward also grabbed a team-high eight boards and picked up two steals. Classmate Corey Connor (Providence, RI) chipped in 13 points, while junior guard Corey Ryser (Tewksbury, Mass.) added 12.
In a closely contested first half that saw four ties and six lead changes, the Bears used a 12-5 run sparked by a three-point play from Ryser to open up the game's largest lead, 31-21, with 4:47 remaining in the stanza. The Rams pulled to within five on a Veal layup with 3:10 to go, but the Bears pushed the lead back to eight (38-30) just before the half on a Johnson bucket as time expired.
The Rams opened the second half with a 10-0 run of their own as they forced three Bear turnovers which they converted into easy transition hoops. Framingham erased the halftime deficit and took a 40-38 lead with 17:34 remaining in the game on a flashy Mclaurin lay in on the break.
The game would go back and forth over the next eight minutes with the lead changing hands twice and neither team taking a lead larger than four points. Trailing by one at 61-60, Framingham rattled off a 6-2 run fueled by a pair of jumpers from Figueroa to regain the lead for good at 66-63 with 2:19 remaining.
The Rams extended their lead to as many as seven in the final two minutes as Figueroa completed a three point play and Veal sank 5-of-6 from the line. Connor nailed a three at the buzzer for the Bears, but it was not enough as the Rams picked up a 74-70 win.
The two teams shot an identical 46.7% from the floor in the game (28-60) with the Rams holding a 40-32 advantage on the glass.
The Rams return to action on Saturday at Worcester State at 3 p.m., while the Bears return to action Thursday night at UMass Boston at 7:30 p.m.