By Jim Fenton
BOSTON, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's basketball team has reached the semester break on a three-game losing streak.
The Bears fell short in their comeback bid against Emerson College on Tuesday night, dropping a 101-98 non-conference decision at the Brown and Plofker Gym.
BSU trailed by as many as 21 points in the first half and was down by 19 in the second half before getting within three in the closing seconds.
The Lions (6-3) held on for their second straight win over the Bears (4-5).
Junior Dante Kikuba (Framingham, Mass.) led BSU with 29 points, hitting 15 of 18 foul shots, with six assists and four steals before fouling out.
Junior Louis Jennings (Walpole, Mass.) added 16 points with three 3-pointers and five rebounds and junior Steve Morrell (Rochester, Mass.) had 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting with five rebounds.
Junior Aidan Rock (Westport, Mass.) scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
BSU was once again without sophomore starters Josh Campbell (Plymouth, Mass.), the leading scorer, and Zach Taylor (Quincy, Mass.), who are injured.
Emerson was led by graduate student Trevor Arico (Saline, Mich.), who made 11 of 17 shots for 38 points. He hit 8 of 11 from 3-point range and was 8-for-9 from the foul line and grabbed five rebounds.
Junior Jacob Armant (Arlington, Texas) had 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds while senior Lucas Brenner (Miami, Fla.) added 17 points.
Emerson made 49 percent of its shots and was 13-for-30 from 3-point range while BSU shot 41 percent and was 9-for-22 from behind the line.
The Bears turned 21 Emerson turnovers into 27 points.
The Lions held a 11-9 lead just over three minutes into the game and went on a 14-1 run to open a 25-10 lead with 12:58 left in the half.
The Bears missed five shots during that time and went 4:44 without a basket before senior TJ Williams (Jupiter, Fla.) hit a 3-pointer with 12:04 to go in the half.
Emerson moved the advantage to 21 points at 41-20 with 6:38 to go after a 16-5 run, the only BSU points coming from Kikuba on a layup and three foul shots.
The Lions were in front, 45-24, with 4:53 remaining, but the Bears outscored the hosts, 13-7, the rest of the way to get within 52-37, at the break.
Arico had 15 of his points by halftime, and BSU's lone lead of the game was at 3-2. The Bears made only 33 percent of their first-half shots.
Emerson stretched the lead back to 63-44 with 17:11 to go, but a 7-0 run enabled BSU to get within 63-51. Kikuba hit a layup and made three foul shots while Rock added a layup.
The Lions were in front, 88-72, with 6:18 left on a Brenner jumper, but four Kikuba foul shots and a pull-up 3-pointer by Kikuba got the Bears within 88-79 with 5:13 left.
Emerson again went up by 14 with 4:19 to go, but a 3-pointer and a jumper by Jennings got the Bears within 95-90 with 1:51 to play.
With time winding down, a pair of Nicolas Bontemps' (Coral Springs, Fla.) free throws got the Bears to within four (99-95), but Arico answered with two free throws at the other end of the floor to push the Emerson lead back up to six with just 15 seconds left to play
A 3-pointer by Jennings with nine seconds remaining made it a three-point game and the Bears caught a break when the Lions missed two free throws with six seconds showing on the scoreboard. Bridgewater had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer but a three-pointer was off the mark.
BSU is idle until playing at Salve Regina University on Dec. 30. Emerson plays an exhibition at Division 1 UMass Lowell on Dec. 30.