By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University women's basketball team has reached the .500 mark after a pair of impressive victories.
The Bears, who began the week with a road win over the nationally ranked University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, did not let down on Saturday afternoon.
BSU (3-3) led from start to finish and defeated Clark University, 75-66, at the Tinsley Center.
The Cougars (5-3) had opened the season with five wins in seven games before losing to the Bears.
BSU had overcome a 13-point deficit in the second half on Tuesday night to defeat UMass Dartmouth, ranked No. 24 in the D3hoops.com poll.
"We put together a really, really good game plan, a really good whole game together at UMass Dartmouth," said coach Bridgett Casey. "There was a lot of grit, there was a lot of toughness, 50-50 balls that we won. I just thought they played great overall as a team in that game.
"We had good practices after that and then we set the tone right away today."
Senior Sydney Bradbury (East Bridgewater, Mass.) got the Bears going, hitting five 3-pointers in the first quarter en route to scoring a game-high 23 points.
Junior Kylie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass.) scored 19 points to go with six assists and five rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.
Also scoring in double figures were junior Jessica D'Amours (Feeding Hills, Mass.) with 12 points, eight rebounds, four steals and two blocks and senior Sophia Gaucher (Lakeville, Mass.) with 11 points, six rebounds and six assists.
"Every game for us is going to be a team effort always," said Casey. "We're not going to have one superstar; we're going to have a lot of people doing their jobs and that's what we had today."
Clark was led by Kailey Rios (Hesperia, Calif.) with 18 points, Alaina Schatzabel (Kennebunk, Maine) with 16 points and 12 rebounds and Catherine Antwi (Lowell, Mass.) with 10 points.
The Bears opened a 23-15 lead after one quarter and held a 38-25 advantage at halftime. Clark scored 25 points in the third quarter and moved within 56-50 going into the final quarter.
But BSU fought off the charge, making 50 percent of its fourth-quarter shots to improve to 1-1 at home.
"There's still, for sure, things we need to work on at both ends, but I'm proud of their effort as always," said Casey. "They're gritty and tough and they get after it.
"They have that never-die mentality. They don't quit, which is something I truly love about them."
Bradbury finished with a career-high seven 3-pointers and had six rebounds and three assists.
Her first 3-pointer came 11 seconds into the game and she was 5-for-6 from long range in the opening quarter to set the tone.
"She has been taking good shots, they just haven't gone in for her," said Casey. "When she hits those first couple, she gets going and we feed her. She had a great first half."
BSU opened a 25-15 lead early in the second quarter on a pair of Grassi foul shots. The Cougars later got within four points, but a foul shot by freshman Caitlin Leahy (Hanson, Mass.) and an offensive rebound and basket by junior Arielle Cleveland (Groveland, Mass.) in the final minute put the Bears up, 38-25, at halftime.
Clark made 56 percent of its shots in the third quarter, scoring as many points (25) as it did in the first two quarters.
"As we go further in, we can't allow that," said Casey. "That's too many points. We have a goal of 27 in a half. To give up 25 in the third is not good."
The 13-point halftime lead was trimmed to six on two occasions.
In the fourth quarter, BSU got the lead into double digits again at 61-50 on a Grassi layup with 8:30 remaining. The only time Clark was trailing by less than 10 points was just before the final buzzer.
After being tested early in the season by Babson, Bowdoin and Rhode Island College, the Bears had a solid week.
"I feel like we were playing a couple of good quarters in some of the past games. The schedule's been pretty tough," said Casey. "I felt like we were competing with them, but we need to get to a full four quarters. I felt like we were starting to see some of that in each game.
"I told my players don't worry about the record. The record means nothing. We just need to get better each game at something."
BSU plays its next seven games away from the Tinsley Center, returning home Jan. 6 to play Framingham State.
The Bears are at MIT on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and will be playing a pair of games in Hawaii later this month.
The wins over UMass Dartmouth and Clark should be a boost and might be looked back on as a turning point in the season.
"I certainly hope so,'' said Casey. "Any time you can beat a ranked team the way we did and follow it up with a win over a team that's won some games, that's big."