Bridgewater State men's hoop heads to NCAAs on backs of Fairhaven's Motta, Rochester's McLaughlin

By Bill Abramson, South Coast Today

BRIDGEWATER - They played the same position, but in different sports and at different schools.

Yet it's the skills involved in quarterbacking their high school teams that have led sophomore Nick Motta of Fairhaven and junior Matt McLaughlin of Rochester to excel as teammates on the Bridgewater State College basketball team, which hosts St. Joseph's of Maine tonight at 7 in the opening round of the NCAA Div. III basketball tournament.

The Bears (20-6) are in the NCAAs as tournament champs of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference for the second time in four years. Should they beat St. Joseph's (21-7), tournament champs in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, they would play a second-round game on Saturday night at Middlebury College (24-3), one of just four teams to receive a first-round bye.

Yet that's of no concern just yet to their quarterbacks. Motta played two years as the quarterback and safety on the Fairhaven High football team. From Old Rochester to Tabor Academy, Clark University to BSC, McLaughlin's always manned the point guard spot - quarterback of the basketball court.

"Nick sees what I see on the court all the time," McLaughlin said. "He knows what I'm doing before I do it. Maybe that's because he was a quarterback, too."

Despite growing up in neighboring towns, the two never played against each other. When McLaughlin was a junior at ORR, Motta was playing hockey. When Motta switched to basketball, McLaughlin switched to Tabor Academy.

"We met here last year," McLaughlin said, "and we definitely have good chemistry."

Head coach Joe Farroba can see that these two have clicked.

"They have a good feel for each other," Farroba said. "You can tell they're on the same vibe."

These two SouthCoast players certainly took divergent routes to Bridgewater. Despite winning the Dave Cowens Achievement Award as the region's best basketball player as a junior, Motta was ticketed to play football in college. Farroba found him at the Top-80 basketball workout in Mansfield.

"I was the only coach there that day and I spoke with Nick and his father (Frank)," Farroba said. "They came to visit and liked what they saw. This year, Nick worked on his game and he's blossomed. He has all the tools. He can handle the ball, shoot, rebound and pass and with that, my expectations for him have grown."

This season, Nick was voted to the second team in the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC).

"I was kind of surprised," Motta said. "I wasn't counting on any awards. That was an extra bonus. I miss football, but I don't regret the choice I made."

Originally headed for UMass-Dartmouth, Nick changed venue when he decided on basketball over football and Bridgewater came up with housing for him.

Motta worked on his game over the summer after getting sporadic minutes as a freshman. He played in the Burgo League in Dartmouth, a league with many of his teammates in Wareham and a town league in Fairhaven.

"It was a lot of extra work, but it paid off," Motta said.

McLaughlin was a teammate on the Wareham team but an opponent in the Burgo League. (He made sure to emphasize his team won the league.)

After completing his junior year at Old Rochester, McLaughlin took his basketball talents to Tabor, where he said the competition was "unreal."

"I see a lot of the guys I played against on TV all the time," he said. "Jerome Dyson, who played point guard at UConn, was on one of those teams we played."

Two years at Tabor led McLaughlin to Clark University in Worcester, where he started as the point guard as a freshman, but transferred because the school didn't offer the major he decided upon: exercise science. Bridgewater was closer to home, making the commute for his parents and three sisters to see him play a lot shorter.

He worked his way into the starting lineup toward the end of his sophomore season and led the MASCAC in assists as a junior.

"I make other people look good," he said. "I like to have the ball in my hands. I'm the quarterback. I'm in charge and everybody looks to me. I'd rather make a nice pass than a basket. When I pass the ball, I want everyone to go, 'O-o-o-o-o-h.'

"There's a level of trust between me and Nick, Corey (Connor), Judah (Jackson) and Roland (Millien). I can call the play because I trust them to do the right thing."

Farroba calls McLaughlin "a great acquisition" and says the two "go at it a little bit" over play calling.

"I treat these kids like sons because they're good people," Farroba said of not only Motta and McLaughlin, but all the Bears on this year's squad. "They genuinely like each other and there's great chemistry on the team."

Looking ahead to the NCAAs, Motta sees the team doing well because of a "commitment to defense."

"We had enough talent and all the guys were coming back," he said. "It's a clich?, but it's true. You win with defense. We made the commitment to work every possession. We had trouble doing that last year."

McLaughlin also sees good things ahead.

"I knew we had the talent to win the conference (league co-champs and playoff champs)," McLaughlin said. "Now that we're here, we have a chance to do something. We've come this far and we're ready to make some noise in the tournament."