By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men’s basketball team was heading for a danger zone in its semifinal-round Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament game.
The second-seeded Bears fell behind third-seeded Worcester State University by 12 points late in the first half, and leading scorer and rebounder Michael Lofton was on the bench in foul trouble.
Just when it looked like BSU might be in trouble, senior guard Brendan Monteiro of Brockton rode to the rescue.
With the Bears trailing the Lancers, 30-18, Monteiro took the game over by leading BSU on a 26-3 run that began with 4:10 to go in the first half and lasted 3:16 into the second half.
The Catholic Memorial graduate scored 21 of those 26 points in 7:26, and the Bears went from being near a danger zone to being in the lead.
BSU never trailed after Monteiro’s spree and held on down the stretch for a 66-62 victory over the Lancers at the Tinsley Center on Thursday night.
The Bears (15-11) now travel to top-seeded Salem State (17-8) on Saturday at 1 p.m. for the MASCAC championship game with BSU seeking its first title since 2011.
“He got it going,” said coach Joe Farroba of Monteiro. “He took good shots. We ran set plays for him. He had the Superman cape on tonight.”
Monteiro finished with 31 points, two shy of his career high, and made 10 of 17 shots to go with six rebounds.
“Coach saw me hit a few, called a couple more sets for me, trusted me with the ball and let me do my thing there,” said Monteiro, who played most likely his final home game. “I wanted to go out for my fans with a bang.”
The Bears needed Monteiro’s extra offense since Lofton finished with two points, 14 below his average. One of the national leaders in Division 3 in field-goal percentage, Lofton went just 1-for-8 and played only 23 minutes due to foul trouble.
Trailing by 12, the Bears scored the final 14 points of the half to go up, 32-30, with Monteiro getting 11 of them on a layup, three-point play and six foul shots.
BSU opened the second half on a 12-3 run to take a 44-33 lead, Monteiro getting 10 of the points with a pair of 3-pointers.
“If you had said to me Lofton’s going to score two points and play 23 minutes, you would have said somebody’s got to come up,” said Farroba, “and Monteiro was a monster.”
After leading by as many as 12, the Bears saw their lead cut to 62-60 with 3:09 to go and 64-62 with 1:25 remaining.
Monteiro hit a jumper to make it 64-60 with 2:55 left, and after two misses by the Lancers with 25 and 14 seconds to go and the BSU lead at two, Monteiro sealed the win with a pair of foul shots.
“We came together as a team and pulled out the win,” said Monteiro, whose team was 0-2 against the Lancers in the regular season. “The toughest thing to do is beat a team three times, but we pulled together. We got some consistent stops.”
Said Farroba, whose team was picked to finish fourth in the MASCAC preseason poll: “To quote Jimmy Valvano, ‘Survive and move on.’ That’s it. That what we did.
“We shot 37 percent. We got outrebounded by 16. The leprechaun was there with us.”
Kyle Gibson (12) was the only other BSU player in double figures while Lofton had 10 rebounds and two steals. Worcester State went 9-3 in its last 12 games with all the losses to the Bears.
Now, BSU makes the trip to Salem State, which eliminated the Mass. College of Liberal Arts on Thursday night.
“It would be huge for us to win it,” said Monteiro. “We haven’t won (since 2011). This school is known for winning championships. It’d be great my last year to win a conference championship with these guys.”