Men's Basketball To Host Worcester State

MEN'S BASKETBALL TO HOST WORCESTER STATE

The Matchup: Worcester State (7-10) at Elms College (9-6)
Date: Thursday, January 25
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Site: Maguire Center (Chicopee, MA)
Click here for directions to Elms College
All-Time Series: Thursday's game marks the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

Setting The Scene: Elms College has won five of its last six games coming into Thursday night. The Blazers cruised to a 94-75 home win over North Atlantic Conference (NAC) foe Becker College on Saturday afternoon. In that game, freshman guard Juan Galdon (Holyoke, MA) netted a collegiate career-high 16 points, including three 3-pointers as one of three Blazers to reach double figures. Junior forward Renato Lindmets (Springfield, MA) contributed 12 points and six rebounds, and senior guard David Williams (Hartford, CT) knocked in 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field to both reach double figures in the
victory.

Scouting The Opposition: Worcester State, a member of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC), is 4-4 in its last eight games and is coming off a 62-53 conference loss at Bridgewater State on Tuesday night. Junior guard Ryan Frassica (Brockton, MA) tallied a game-high 18 points for the Lancers, who had a 33-32 halftime lead overturned in the loss. Frassica currently ranks 11th in the MASCAC in scoring (13.5 ppg), while 6-5 senior forward Mark Retallic (Oxford, MA) and 6-4 junior forward Winfred Rembert (New Haven, CT) haul in a combined 14 rebounds per contest. The Lancers rank last in the MASCAC in scoring offense (67.6), but are third in scoring defense (71.1). 

Talk About Tough: Elms College's schedule ranks as arguably the toughest of any team in the NAC, as the Blazers have already faced three teams currently ranked in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. Elms College has lost to No. 2 Amherst, No. 18 WPI and No. 21 Bates this season.  

Mook's Milestone: Senior guard John "Mook" Ancrum (Harlem, NY) recently became the fourth player in program-history to surpass the 1,000-point mark in the Blazers' 85-76 loss at Husson. Ancrum, who is already the team's all-time career leader in assists, enters Thursday's game just 99 points away from also becoming the program's all-time scoring leader.

Blazer Bits: Elms College is 9-2 when outrebounding its opponents, 5-0 in day games, 5-0 when scoring 80+ points and 7-1 when leading at halftime this season.

Keeping Track of Blazers' Athletics: For the latest news, notes and statistics on all 15 Elms College intercollegiate teams, visit our new athletics website at http://athletics.elms.edu/landing/index or call the Sports Information hotline at (413)-265-2414.