By Izabela Gage Sports Editor By Sophia Oppedisano Sports Editor The Framingham State men’s basketball team defeated the Worcester State University Lancers 79-74 in a stunning conference upset on their home court during Senior Night, Feb. 19. The Rams entered the contest with a conference record of 3-7 and ranked sixth out of the seven MASCAC teams, while the Lancers’ conference record of 8-2 put them firmly in second place. Before the start of the game, the Rams honored their five seniors: Adonis Vashon, Jordan Howard, JD Okafor, Kyle Philistin, and Chance Wells. Head Coach Donald Morris Jr. tapped the seniors to be his starting five for the game and Okafor stepped up to the center line to secure the tip-off for the Rams. Okafor led the five seniors with a double-double, contributing 10 points and a team-high 14 rebounds and 11 defensive rebounds. Vashon supported the charge with 9 points, eight rebounds, and four assists, and Philistin contributed 18 points of his own. Wells recorded five assists and three rebounds and Howard came up with 6 points on his stat line. The Rams’ confidence was palpable from the start. They struck first on a jump shot from Howard, who drained it for 2 points. The Lancers imposed a full-court press from the tip-off but the Rams kept up with the pace, trading the lead six times in the first 8 minutes. Okafor said the team practiced for the press defense. To break the press, Okafor said, “We just had to communicate more amongst each other to know who was stretching the floor, and who was staying back to help out.” Sophomore Joshua Saint Jean, a major offensive contributor, said, “The last time we played against Worcester, the press destroyed us and we couldn’t figure out how to beat it. With great game planning, we learned in order to beat the press, we had to slow things down.” With the score at 16-15 in favor of the Lancers, a layup from Howard sent the Rams on a 12-1 run punctuated by a layup from Philistin to give the Rams a 27-16 lead with 6 minutes to play in the first half. The atmosphere in the gym was electric, with a packed home crowd and an exuberant Framingham bench that got up and celebrated every point. The Rams triumphed for the rest of the first half. Vashon sank a hanging 3-point shot to give the Rams a 14-point lead with 3:24 left on the clock. Framingham closed out the first half on a jump shot from Howard and a layup from Saint Jean to bring the score to 40-29 going into the half. From the start of the second half, the momentum belonged solely to the Rams. The Rams kept their pace on defense, recording another 17 defensive rebounds, bringing their game total to 35. Philistin started the second half with two 3-point field goals, bringing the score to 43-31 in the opening minutes of play. Worcester tried to press on but struggled to find success. The Rams continued to assert their command of the game and Philistin nailed a dunk in answer to a Lancer 3-point shot. Wells extended the lead to 52-38 with a 3-point shot with just under 16 minutes left in the half. According to Wells, the Rams found success against Worcester because “we just stuck together as a group and we brought energy from the court to the bench.” The team is going to focus on maintaining the momentum from this game to “make our playoff run,” Wells added. After Wells’ shot, the Lancers answered with four straight baskets, but the Rams continued to dominate on offense. Wells sank another 3-pointer and Saint Jean, Philistin, and Okafor contributed with layups that brought the score to 70-52 with 5 minutes left in the game. The Lancers began mounting a comeback on offense with a 9-1 run that closed the gap in the score to 71-61. The Rams were leading 75-63 with 2 minutes left on the clock when the Lancers began their last drive to try to pull out the win. Turnovers and fouls from the Rams gave the Lancers shooting opportunities that brought them within an inch of taking over the game. With a minute to play, the Lancers were only down by 5 points. As both teams began trading fouls, free throws from Philistin extended the Rams’ lead to 77-70 and the Lancers quickly countered with four straight shots and were forced to foul with 16 seconds remaining. The score stood at 77-74. The Lancers committed two fouls on Saint Jean and his free throws sealed the win for the Rams and the final score was 79-74. The win marked an impressive performance for the Rams, who shot 51% from the floor and 35% on 3-point field goals. Comparatively, the Lancers only shot 39% from the floor. Saint Jean led the team with 27 points and recorded 11 rebounds for a double-double. He also came up with eight defensive rebounds. “Shout out to my coaches for working and preparing me with in-game situations that the defense might put me in. With their help, I was able to counter and attack the defense very well tonight,” he said. Okafor said he was focused on staying “aggressive” throughout the game. “Scoring will come - rebounding comes from just crashing. I knew what I could do, so I just tried to play hard to help the team out. “We know we're the better team, so we just had to have the right mindset coming into the game, knowing that we had to stay locked in all 40 minutes - not just for the first half. Not just for the second half. We knew what we had to do, and I'm just glad we came together and got it done,” he said. With this win, the Rams improved their conference record to 4-7 and their overall record to 10-14. The win also moved the team up in the MASCAC standings to the fifth slot out of seven teams. Their final regular season game will take place away at Fitchburg State University Feb. 22. “Our team’s main focus before the season ends is to clinch a playoff spot because last year, we weren’t able to do so. I want to play the hardest and give it my all for our last regular season game,” Saint Jean said. This is the men’s basketball program’s most successful season in the past decade and a playoff appearance would mark Morris Jr.'s first MASCAC playoff appearance with the Rams. “We're focused on making sure everyone's mind is in the right place because as long as our mind is right, we know the basketball side of things will take care of itself,” Okafor said.