Men's Basketball Starts the Season Off Strong with a 2-0 Start
- Nathan Potter
- Nov 14
- 2 min read
FRANKLIN, MA – The Dean College Men’s Basketball team defeated the Mitchell College Mariners 85-72 Wednesday night in Pieri Gymnasium.
The Bulldogs have started their season with a 2-0 home stint. This only furthers their prowess on home court after ending last season with a 14-2 record at home.
Dean was led by Senior Christian Yeates who led all scorers with 26 points; However, none were more important than the shot he hit at the end of the first half. With less than two seconds on the clock, Yeates caught a pass off a side out play and drilled an off balance, bank shot three pointer to extend the Bulldogs lead heading into the half.
“Yeates has become a 1A (to) 1B option, whereas last year he was our third guy in terms of scoring, so he’s definitely taken steps there.”
That’s how head coach Joe Cabral responded when asked about senior leadership.
Speaking of senior leadership, Randy Vasquez played a pivotal role in the opening minutes of the first half, scoring six of the first nine points for the Bulldogs and giving them a quick 9-6 lead.
Cabral once again gave high praise to his seniors.
“Randy is finishing better than he did last year, and that goes into offseason work.”
For the majority of the first half Mitchell and Dean were neck and neck. The Bulldogs had contributions from a multitude of players. Xavier Boyd, Slim Hines, Moussa Berete, and Naser Motley all contributed to the scoring.
The first half ended with a Yeates explosion as he rattled off 13 points in the final seven minutes including his shot at the buzzer to give Dean a 42-35 lead at halftime.
“We’re going to give them the answers to the test… we talked about playing the first five minutes of the second half faster than we played the first half.”
The second half saw the Mariners attempt to keep pace with Dean, but Motley, who scored 18, and Yeates, who scored 13, proved to be too much as they were able to extend the lead to 16 points late in the game.
Although Mitchell implemented their full court press and converted on two quick buckets, it was the Bulldogs who left with the win.
Dean moves to 1-0 in conference and 2-0 overall and will travel to Fitchburg State to face the Falcons on Friday at 6pm.
