CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Senior Justin Pedley (Kennewick, Wash.) scored a career-high 29 points and the MIT defense held Bridgewater State University to just 30.5 percent shooting as the Engineers scored a 64-47 victory over the Bears in the men's basketball season opener for MIT. Junior Fawaz Mass (Taunton, Mass.) led Bridgewater State with 12 points.
MIT (1-0) was hot early, hitting its first four shots of the game, including a three pointer from freshman Bradley Jomard (Paris, France), as it raced out to an 11-0 lead in the first five minutes. Bridgewater State (1-2), on the other hand, missed on its first six shots and did not get on the board until the 15:10 mark when Mass hit a jump shot. MIT's defense held the Bears from getting any closer than five points over the next 12 minutes, with the offense providing enough punch to have the Engineers on top 22-12 on a layup from junior Tim Butala (Monroe, Conn.) with 6:18 left in the half.
MIT then committed its 10th foul of the half, putting Bridgewater State in the double bonus. The Bears took advantage and slowly chipped away at the MIT lead, scoring six straight points, pulling within four at 22-18 on a pair of Mass free throws with three minutes to go. MIT could only come up with a jumper from Pedley in the final minutes, and a pair of free throws by freshman Kasey Kirby (Dedham, Mass.) in the final minute cut MIT's lead down to a pair at the half, 24-22.
As it did in the first half, MIT got off to a good start in the second. Pedley started the half with his second trey of the night and the Engineers went on to outscore Bridgewater State, 12-4, over the first five minutes. Kirby pulled down an offensive rebound and put the ball back to make it an eight-point game at 36-28 with 14:51 to play, but it would be as close as the Bears would get.
Butala pulled down a miss and put it back two minutes later to up the lead to double figures and the Engineers followed that with back-to-back threes from Pedley and Butala. MIT went on to score 12 unanswered points over a six-minute span that put the game away. The Engineers pushed its advantage to 54-30 with 6:24 left on a three-point play from senior Lampros Tsontzos (Amarousion, Greece) before Bridgewater State could put a halt to the run.
Starting with a Mass layup and a three from freshman Jamir Henderson (Mattapan, Mass.) the Bears went on an 11-1 run to close to 55-41 with 3:13 to go, but it was as close as they could get as MIT scored its first win of the 2015-16 season.
Pedley hit on 12-of-18 shots from the floor, including 4-of-9 from long range for the Engineers. Butala finished with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds, while senior Ryan Frankel (New York, N.Y.) dished out 10 assists to go with six points and five rebounds. Henderson also reached double figures in scoring for Bridgewater State, putting in 10. Junior Connor Dunleavy (Winchester, Mass.) and sophomore Joseph Carty (Natick, Mass.) led the Bears with eight rebounds each.
MIT will stay at home in its next game, hosting Gordon College on Thursday, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. Next up for Bridgewater State will be a game at Ithaca College as part of the Cortaca Classic on Friday, November 20 at 8:00 p.m.