Motta on the rise at BSC
March 19, 2009
By Jon Haglof, South Coast Today
BRIDGEWATER ?- Nick Motta was a one-man gang on the football field and basketball court at Fairhaven High School.
Now, Motta's just one of the gang with the Bridgewater State College men's basketball team. But he's quickly working his way to back to the top.
As sophomore with BSC this season, Motta cracked the starting five and emerged as one of the Bears' top players, finishing the winter second on the team in scoring, with 14.2 points per game, and rebounding, with 6.3 per game. The only player on the team with better numbers was 6-6 senior Roland Millien.
Motta was also the team's second best shooter from behind the three-point arch and led the team in steals.
What's more, he's playing for a solid team, perhaps one of the 16 best Division 3 hoop teams in the nation.
It's an imprecise and unofficial ranking, but by advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division 3 Tournament, the Bears made a strong argument for just such a billing. And Motta says BSC's only headed up in the two years he's got left on his commitment.
"We have a really good group of players. We only lost three seniors, and we have a lot of juniors and sophomores coming back, so we should be good next year, too," he said Tuesday, just a few days after the BSC's final game of the season, a loss to Farmingdale State College in the NCAA Div. 3 Sectional semifinals Friday night at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
"I love it, I'm having a lot of fun. All the guys on the team are really good friends, so that makes it a lot of fun. "
BSC's postseason run came as a bit of a surprise, and was greeted with much fanfare on campus. But Motta and his teammates knew just what was in the works from day one. And for those not convinced early on, a late-season surge in which the Bears won 16 of their final 18 games strengthened the case that BSC was a team to watch.
They went on to win four consecutive postseason games, including two en route to the MASCAC (Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference) tournament championship.
"We knew from the beginning of the year, with the guys that we had in the locker room, we had the potential to be a good team. And we knew if we could make it to the NCAAs, we could win a few games. It was just a matter of winning the games we needed to win."
Two of the wins they needed, and what turned out to be two of BSC's best games this season, came against Salem State in the MASCAC Championship Game back on Feb. 28, which gave the Bears an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament, and then, over Middlebury in the second round of the NCAA tourney back on March 7, which saw them through to the round of 16.
The team finished the season at 22-7 overall and 10-2 in MASCAC play.
Motta's best game of the postseason was a 26 point, six rebound effort in a win over Saint Joseph's in round one of the Div. 3 tourney. His best game of the season, where numbers are concerned anyway, was a monster 28 point, 13 rebound performance in a win over Fitchburg State back on Feb. 7.
Motta joined the team in the winter of 2007, and spent most of his freshman year on the bench, occasionally seeing the floor in a support role. But this year, he jumped right up to the first five, and found himself playing a bit out of position, from what he was used to, anyway.
"I didn't really know what would happen," Motta said of his rise to the role of starter. "I played all summer and was really working to get better. I wasn't sure who was coming back or who was coming in as a transfer, but I knew I could play on the floor this season, and when they named the starting line-up, I was on it.
"Basically, we play with four guards, so I'm basically a power forward. I'm a big man on our team, but I'm only 6-3."
The one-man-gang days are long gone, but with two more years to go, who knows.
"It's a long way from high school," Motta says. "The speed of the game is a lot faster, and obviously, the talent gets better when you move up to college - guys are bigger and there are more guys who can shoot from way out. So, it's just a matter of getting used to the speed of the game and all that, and overall, you just have to step your game up."