The Fitchburg State Falcons and Salem State Vikings have advanced to the MASCAC Men's Basketball Semifinals after winning their respective quarterfinals matchups on Tuesday night.

#3 Fitchburg State 74, #6 Worcester State 63 (OT)

Box Score 

FITCHBURG, Mass. -- The third seeded Fitchburg State men's basketball team defeated the sixth seeded Lancers of Worcester State University in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) quarterfinal round action of the 2014-15 MASCAC men's basketball tournament this evening at Parkinson Gymnasium.

With the win, Fitchburg State improves to 15-11 (6-6 MASCAC) and advances to the semifinal round on Thursday as it travels to Bridgewater State to take on the second seeded Bears for a contest starting at 7 p.m. Worcester State concludes the 2014-15 season with an overall record of 6-20 and a 6-6 mark within conference play.

Worcester State had four players reach double figures with senior Brendan Rios leading the way. Rios finished 7-of-19 from the field for a game-best 20 points on the evening, while classmateCharles Gunter added 15 points and 11 caroms to the mix. Sophomore Paul Brooks rounded out the Lancers attack with a double-double of 12 points and 12 boards.

For the Falcons, junior Kwame Lee turned in a double-double of 19 points and ten boards, while classmate Keyon Armstrong added 18 points, five assists and five steals. Junior Givaughn Jones was also solid, finishing with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists for the hosts.

Worcester State snagged a six point advantage at the half, using a ten point first half effort from Brooks. The Lancers jumped out to an early seven point lead, opening the contest on an 8-1 run on a layup form Brooks and a pair of trey's by Rios before Fitchburg State knotted the game at (10-10) midway through frame, highlight by four points each from Armstrong and Jones.

The Lancers responded with a 7-2 run at the 8:11 mark on a three pointer by sophomoreMarquez McKreith-Collins as well as a pair of layups from Gunter to take a 17-10 advantage en-route to a 27-21 margin at the break.

In the second half, the two teams trade buckets to start the frame before Worcester State grabbed  its highest lead of the second half (47-40) with 6:27 remaining in regulation as Rios knocked down his fourth shot from beyond the arc.

The Green and Gold continued to battle down the stretch however, trailing by three (55-52) with seven second left, junior guard Leonny Burgos drove into the lane before kicking out a pass to Lee on the right elbow, who then proceeded to knock down the game-tying trey as time expired to force overtime.

In the overtime period, with score knotted at 59 all, the Falcons went on an 15-2 stretch that lasted nearly three minutes to break open the contest as Lee accounted for seven of the Falcons 15 points during that run, resulting the 74-63 final.

For the game, Worcester State shot 33.3 % from the field on 24-of-72 shooting from the field and 25.0 % from three point range, while the Falcons shot 45.1% from the field, including 38.1% from behind the arc.

#4 Salem State 78, #5 MCLA 63

Box Score

Salem, Mass. -- Seniors Nicholas Grassa (Lynn, MA) and Hamed Akanni (Fitchburg, MA) each tallied 13 points to lift the #4 seed Vikings of Salem State past the # 5 seed Trailblazers of MCLA 78-63 in the quarterfinals of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Tournament on Tuesday night at Twohig Gymnasium. With the win, Salem State will move on to play the top seeded Owls of Westfield State in the MASCAC semi-finals on Thursday. Salem State improves to 14-12 while MCLA ends their season with a record of 8-18.
 
After a pair of made free throws from Todd Hunt (Cambridge, NY) and a Ruben Delrosario (Springfield, MA) layup, the Trailblazers opened with a 4-0 lead which would be their last of the ball game as a Vikings' run which ended in a Bryan Ortiz (Salem, MA) three-pointer put the Vikings in control. Salem State looked inside to Drew Healy (Lowell, MA) who led all scorers with eight first-half points including a powerful dunk that gave the Vikings a 22-17 lead with just over four minutes remaining in the half. The dunk was part of a 10-0 run that lifted Salem State to an 11-point lead, their largest margin of the night. Just before the half Anthony Barbosa (Worcester, MA) converted on an and-one opportunity to cut the deficit to 28-20, giving the Vikings a comfortable edge entering the second half.
 
Salem State began to run away with the score as Anthony Hodges (Worcester, MA) sparked an 11-0 run to open the second half, giving Salem State a 44-27 advantage with 15:12 left to play. The Vikings' shooters improved dramatically in the second half as they shot 68.2% from the floor compared to 38.7% in the first. MCLA's offense was aggressive driving the ball to the basket, but they could not convert as poor free throw shooting (16-32) 50% undermined their comeback attempt. Salem State's largest lead came at the 6:00 mark after Ortiz sank two free throws. The Vikings shot 18-24 (75%) from the foul line, but it was enough to secure a 78-63 victory in a game marred by two technicals and 49 fouls.
 
Healy finished with 12 points and seven rebounds while Delrosario anchored the Trailblazers with 11 points and Barbosa contributed 10 points.
 
The Vikings will advance to the MASCAC semi-finals where they will face-off against the regular season champion Owls of Westfield State on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in Westfield, Mass.     

Courtesy of Fitchburg State and Salem State Sports Information