The Old Rochester Boy's basketball team got a crucial win Friday night against the New Bedford Vocational Technical High School Bears. The team, in the midst of a 5-game winning streak needed a win to stay in contention for the South Coast Conference title.

The Bulldogs have had troubling winning on the road this year. Their only two losses this year came at Fairhaven and at Wareham. It looked like the Bulldogs would struggle again going down 17-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Bulldogs got back into their rythme though, scoring 22 points in the second quarter, going into halftime leading 31-28.

In the second half the team's defense stepped up, making the Bears earn every basket. As the shots started falling, ORR's big men started racking up the rebounds. After Old Rochester established a 7-point lead the teams started trading baskets. The Bulldog's had an answer for every score.

The Bulldogs put the game away in the fourth quarter behind Haydon Bergeron. Bergeron scored 11 fourth quarter points including one 3-point shot. Despite cutting the lead to 55-48, the Bears weren't able to keep up with the Bulldogs.

The final score was 72-57 Old Rochester. Old Rochester, now 9-2 (7-2) in conference are riding a 6-game winning streak. They will take on first place Wareham at home on Tuesday night in the most important game of the season for the team. The conference title potentially on the line. The Bears fall to 4-4 (4-4) in conference.

The Bulldogs had key contributions from Senior Paul Graves who scored three 3-pointers as well as Senior co-captains Jeremy Bare and Michel Pruchnik who had a combined 23 points as well as the majority of the Bulldog's rebounds. The player of the game was Senior Haydon Bergeron. Not normally a big scoring threat for the Bulldogs, Bergeron stepped up last night scoring 18 points and helping the Bulldogs get their ninth win of the season.