By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University men's basketball team has been dealing with one injury after another this season.
The Bears have lost seven players (three with ankle ailments, four with knee injuries) since the preseason in October, leaving them short-handed heading into the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference schedule.
"If you coach long enough, you deal with all sorts of things,'' said BSU coach Joe Farroba. "Right now, we're dealing with a lot of injuries.
"We have had a real stretch of bad luck.''
It all began when the lone senior, Tyler DeMelo, who started 25 games and averaged 7.8 points last year, suffered a season-ending ankle injury nearly three months ago.
The latest injury occurred in practice this week when Joseph Carty, averaging 12.2 points and 10.7 rebounds, hurt his ankle and could be sidelined into February. Conor Dunleavy, a 6-foot-8 center, who started eight games, is also out for a couple more weeks.
The Bears (3-8 entering Thursday's game with UMass-Boston) play their first MASCAC game on Saturday at the Tinsley Center against Framingham State at 3 p.m.
BSU now has a starting lineup of juniors Fawaz Mass (15 points, 5.5 rebounds) of Taunton, Greg Romanko and Michael Soares, sophomore Rocky DeAndrade (9.1 points) and freshman Ryan Carney (6.8 points) of Easton.
"We've got depth, but this is tough to handle,'' said Farroba. "We're going to be a different team. Rebounding will be a factor without Carty and Dunleavy.
"Here's the good part of it: We're going to find out if the kids we've recruited can play right away.''
BSU, which concluded its non-conference schedule on Thursday, played in three tournaments – the Babson Invitational, the Cortaca Classic in Cortland, N.Y., and the Land of Magic Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla.
"We've played a very competitive schedule,'' said Farroba. "We've only played two teams below .500. In Florida, we played the No. 10 team in the country (John Carroll), and the two teams we played down there were a combined 17-4.''