By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The championship game of the Bridgewater State University Cave Classic was up for grabs nearing the midway point of the second half.
The host Bears men's basketball team was trailing Worcester Polytechnic Institute by two points with less than 12 minutes remaining.
That's when the Engineers took control, scoring 16 unanswered points in just 2:59, sending them on the way to an 84-65 victory for the Cave Classic title at the Tinsley Center Saturday afternoon.
The Bears had pulled within 51-49 on a layup by Justin Parsons (Portsmouth, R.I.) with 12:02 left. But the Engineers (5-0) made seven of eight shots in their spree, taking advantage of three four BSU turnovers.
WPI built a 67-49 lead with 8:23 left thanks to that 16-0 run, and the Bears (2-2) never recovered.
"I could have done a better job calling a timeout, maybe a second timeout," said coach Matt McLaughlin. "It's tough. We are most successful in transition, so sometimes when I see us in transition I tend not to. I let them do what they do.
"But I think we were a little bit gassed. Some of the guys were tired and needed a sub."
Tournament most valuable player John Adams (Douglas, Mass.) scored 20 of his 26 points in the first half and added 10 rebounds and six assists for WPI.
All-tournament team selection Donova Sevilla (San Ramon, Calif.) added 19 points, four rebounds and three steals while Aidan Callahan (Rowley, Mass.) and J.R. Newman (Havertown, Pa.) were also in double figures with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
BSU, which shots just 39.7 percent from the floor, was led by freshman Josh Campbell (Plymouth, Mass.). The all-tourney team pick had 11 points and six rebounds while Parsons scored 10 points.
After being down by nine in the first half, the Bears were behind, 40-37, at the break with Adams scoring half of his team's points.
BSU took a 41-40 lead on a Parsons' layup with 18:34 left but after scoring at least 100 points in two of its first three games, the Bears were limited to 28 second-half points.
Foul trouble limited guard Dante Kikuba (Framingham, Mass.) to just 19 minutes, which hampered BSU's offense.
"We were close. We were in it the whole game," said McLaughlin. "Obviously Dante being in foul trouble hurts us. Credit to the guys, even with Dante out, we were still playing with them. We
were still right there.
"A few turnovers back-to-back hurt. They capitalized. That kind of caught up to us, and WPI's good. They're a very good team. They execute really well and they make you work. They knock down shots. Credit to them."
Adams set the tone for WPI in the first half when he made 9 of 14 shots to score the 20 points from the inside. The rest of the Engineers were just 7 for 24 in the opening 20 minutes.
"He's tough," said McLaughlin. "We tried to look to double him and pay more attention to him (in the second half). That kind of forced him to look elsewhere. We knew he was going to be tough. He beat us. He took it to us. He's skilled."
Following the 16-0 run in the second half, the Bears were unable to get any closer than 15 the rest of the way.
BSU opened the Cave Classic Friday night by rallying past Ithaca College. McLaughlin was encouraged that progress was made in the tourney despite the second-half struggles against WPI.
"It's probably one of the best teams we'll play this season," said McLaughlin of WPI. "We're still young. We're getting our guys to see what it's like to go against a team like that.
"They're probably an NCAA-caliber team. For us to go against them gives us a lot of experience and hopefully we take it and learn from it."
BSU has one game during Thanksgiving week, traveling to Rhode Island College for a 7:30 p.m. matchup on Tuesday night. That starts a stretch of five consecutive road games.
The Bears return to the Tinsley Center on Dec. 12 when Emerson College visits.