PAXTON, Mass. – The Anna Maria College men's basketball team withstood a furious Bridgewater State rally as the AMCATS held on for an 81-77 victory over the visiting Bears on Tuesday night at The Fuller Activities Center.
Three players finished in double figure scoring for the host AMCATS who earned their second win of the young season and improved to 2-4 overall. The Bears dropped to 3-3 on the year.
The AMCATS were paced by senior Anthony Click (Springfield, Mass.) who led all players with 20 points in addition to six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Click knocked down 7-of-9 shots from the floor while going 6-for-7 from the charity stripe. Senior Javier Bristol (Haverhill, Mass.) finished with 19 points, on 8-of-9 shooting, and a game-high nine rebounds. Junior Joey Barillo (Dania Beach, Fla.) added 17 points, three rebounds, four assists and one steal.
Bridgewater was led by sophomore forward Michael Lofton (Mansfield, Mass.) who had 15 points and nine rebounds, while junior guard Brendan Monteiro (Brockton, Mass.) scored a team-high 16 points. Senior guard Brendan McDonald (Dorchester, Mass.) chipped-in with 10 points off the bench.
The first half was a closely contested back-and-forth battle. The score was knotted at 19 with less than ten minutes remaining in the period when Anna Maria went on a 9-0 run, including five points from Barillo. The Bears battled back and at the 4:54 mark a Lofton jumper cut the lead to one point at 28-27. Anna Maria turned up the defense late in the stanza causing four Bridgewater turnovers and outscoring the Bears 9-1 to take a 37-29 advantage into the locker room.
AMC's Bristol and BSU's Monteiro led all players with nine points during the period. Anna Maria held the shooting advantage (50% to 33%) and rebounding edge (23-19).
The Bears scored first out of the blocks in the second half. Monteiro notched a trey from the corner to cut the lead to five points 37-32 just a minute in. However, the AMCATS responded with a mammoth 19-4 run to take a 56-36 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the game. Post grad Brad Peterson (North Kingstown, R.I.), Bristol and Barillo each scored 4 points during the run.
The Bears were able to shave nine points off the lead but the AMCATS still led by 11 (77-66) with 2:50 left on the clock. Lofton and BSU sophomore guard Justin Clark (Yarmouthport, Mass.) then combined for 11 unanswered Bridgewater points over a 1:31 span to tie the game at 77 all with 1:24 to play. Clark knocked down a pair of three-pointers during the run including the game-tying trifecta.
On Anna Maria's next possession, Click buried a two-point jumper with 1:10 remaining, while Bristol grabbed the most important defensive rebound on the night on Bridgewater's attempt to tie the game. A pair of Click free throws sealed the hard fought victory for Anna Maria.
The AMCATS shot a sizzling 61.8% (34-for-55) from the floor for the game. After struggling over the first 20 minutes, the Bears responded by knocking down 50% (18-for-36) of their field goal attempts in the second half including 6-for-15 (40%) from behind the arc.