MEDFORD, Mass. – Suffolk men's basketball put together a well-balanced attack to take down Framingham State, 67-33, Wednesday afternoon at Tufts' Cousens Gym.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 67 | Framingham State 33
RECORDS: Suffolk (7-6) | Framingham State (1-12)
HOW IT HAPPENED
A slow start saw Suffolk up one, 13-12, 11:28 into the first frame. Out of a Framingham timeout, the lead exchanged twice more with the last coming in SU's favor. Nate Hale's shot-clock expiring triple sparked a 15-2 stretch that put the hosts ahead 28-16 with 3:09 remaining before half time. That run featured a pair of treys from Alex Jacovides and five points from Hale.
In the final three minutes, Max Bonney-Liles buried a three-pointer for Suffolk, who held FSU without a field goal the rest of the way to take a 31-18 lead into the locker room.
Over the first 4:14 all the scoring belonged to Suffolk as the blue-and-gold poured in 11 unanswered points capped off by back-to-back buckets from William Rowe to gain a hefty 22-point cushion, 42-20.
Framingham found its grove and went on a scoring streak of its own. The visitors seven consecutive points and a 4:48 Suffolk scoring lull allowed the black-and-gold to slice the gap down to 15, 42-27, with just under 12 minutes left.
A Hale hoop jump started Suffolk's offense that maintained the 15-point margin the rest of the way and doubled when Brendan Mulson capped an 11-0 rally with a left-handed-drive at the 2:27 minute mark.
Suffolk's scoring continued in the final two minutes with the host Rams keeping their scoring stretch going for the final 67-33 victory.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Hale was the lone Suffolk Ram to hit double figures with 11 points, which included a 4-for-4 effort at the charity stripe. The Rams reserve added three boards and one takeaway as well.
- Thomas Duffy and Jonathan Eng each supplied eight points. Duffy shot 3-for-5 from the field, while Eng did't missing, going 3-for-3 from the floor. Duffy's performance was all-around, with five handouts, four caroms and one steal with Eng chipping in four dimes, one rebound and one steal as well.
- Mulson contributed on the offensive and defensive end with seven points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists.
- It wasn't the best shooting day for Suffolk, shot went just 38.1 percent (24-63) from the field. The Boston Rams stayed in the game thanks to its 43.5 percent (10-23) connection rate from downtown and an 81.8 percent (9-11) showing on freebies.
- Suffolk outrebounded Framingham State, 36-28.
NOTEWORTHY
- Suffolk defeated Framingham State for the third straight meeting, to move to 14-15 all-time against FSU.
- The three wins in a row against FSU, the most consecutive triumphs against Framingham since Suffolk opened the series with six straight victories from 1971-76.
- Suffolk is undefeated all-time against Framingham State in the Jeff Juron era, 2-0.
- Eng dished out a career-high four helpers.
POST-GAME PIC
WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk takes the weekend off before heading back to Medford, Massachusetts, for a 7 p.m. tilt with Tufts.