Vikings Cap Off Senior Night with Victory Over Rams

SALEM, Mass. – This evening, Salem State men's basketball closed out their regular season schedule with the 73-58 win over the Rams of Framingham State University. Prior to the action, the Vikings also celebrated graduating seniors Chris MacDonald (Wakefield, Mass.), Conner and Jarret Byrne (Melrose, Mass.) and Javier Osorio (Pittsfield, Mass.).

The Vikings were spearheaded by seniors MacDonald and C. Byrne who notched 20 and 16 points, respectively, while J. Byrne added a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

On the other side, Juran Ligonde (Dedham, Mass.) led the Rams with a double- double as he notched 19 points and 15 rebounds while JD Okafor (Boston, Mass.) chipped in with 17 points and eight rebounds in the effort.

How it Happened:

• After production from three of their seniors, the Vikings found themselves with the 7-2 edge after five minutes of action.  Salem was able to hold a slight advantage over the Rams until the 6:04 when Framingham State converted an and-one to take the 15-14 tilt.
• Shortly after, MacDonald hit his second triple of the game to reclaim the lead for his squad and spark them to a 14-0 run to bring the game to 28-15 with 1:17 to play in the half. Both sides were able to tack on one more basket to send the game into halftime with the Vikings' holding the 15-point (32-17) advantage.  
• MacDonald had the hot hand coming out of the break, scoring eight of the Viking's opening 12 points to lead his team to the 17-point cushion (44-27) less than five minutes into second half action.
• With the clock reading 11:50 the Vikings found themselves with their largest lead thus far after a layup from Josh Coffey (Norton, Mass.) put the home team up by a tally of 20 (56-36). The Rams were able to put together a little run of six unanswered points to cut into the deficit and bring the score to 56-42 with under eight minutes to play in the game.
• The Rams would find themselves within 14 points with 5:58 to play but that would be as close as they would get to the Vikings, as Salem remained solid and cruised to the 73-58 MASCAC victory.