SALEM, Mass. -- The No. 1 seed Salem State College Vikings jumped out to a 38-19 halftime lead and never looked back en route to an 81-49 victory over Bridgewater State College in a MASCAC Tournament semifinal round game played this evening at James Twohig Gymnasium.
SSC (20-6) will host No. 3 seed Westfield State (19-8) on Saturday, March 1st at 2:00 pm at Twohig Gym for the MASCAC postseason championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Bridgewater State ends its season with a record of 13-13.
SSC was led by senior guard Marquis Victor's (Lawrence, MA) game-high 21 points. Victor led all first half scorers with 13. Senior forward Jeremy Taitt (Boston, MA) finished with 13 points for the Vikings who also received 12 points each from junior center Dylan Holmes (Groton, MA) and senior guard Alex Finn (Ashby, MA). Holmes topped all SSC rebounders with 12 while Victor added eight.
No. 5 seed Bridgewater was led by Roland Millien's (Stoughton, MA) 12 points and game-high 14 rebounds.
The Vikings, who are the defending MASCAC playoff champions, forced the Bears to commit 21 turnovers and out-rebounded the visitors, 62-44. The Vikings also took advantage of BSC's poor all-around shooting as the Bears shot just 27% (18-for-66) from the floor, 44% (11-for-25) at the line and 13% (2-for-15) from behind the arc. SSC finished 31-for-80 (38.8%) from the field, 14-for-17 (82.4%), from the line and 5-for-17 (29.4%) from three-point land.