Owls Hold Bears at Bay on Senior Night, 70-66

WESTFIELD, Mass.  –  Kuany Teng's (Manchester, NH/Bradford Christian Academy)  three-pointer with 2:56 to play gave Westfield State the lead for good as the Owls won a back-and-forth battle over Bridgewater State, 70-66 in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game at the Woodward Center on Wednesday evening.

With the senior night win, Westfield improves to 17-7 and 8-3 in the conference, while Bridgewater is now 13-11 and 9-3 in the MASCAC.

Teng's three pointer put the Owls on top 63-62 after the game had see-sawed throughout.

Westfield jumped out to a 28-20 lead after an Angel Price-Espada (Cambridge, Mass./Pope John XXIII)  four-point play with 6:01 to play in the first half, but the bears rallied late in the half, grabbing a 38-37 lead in the closing seconds of the half on a layup by Precious Okoh (Brockton, Mass./Bradford Christian).

The Bears looked to extened the lead, using a 6-2 run in the first 2:35 of the second half to go on top 44-39 on a Dante Kikuba (Framingham, Mass.) layup.   But that was as big as the BSU lead would get.  Westfield trimmed the marging back down, with the Owls taking the lead 53-52 on a Teng 3-pointer with 9:42 left in the game.

The clubs would trade the lead six times in the next seven minutes.

Westfield hung on down the stretch, after Bridgewater's Louis Jennings (Walpole, Mass.) drilled a three-pointer with 1:23 left that cut the Westfield lead to one point, at 66-65.   Westfield's Brendon Hamilton  (Worcester, Mass./Worcester Tech) drilled a jumpshot on a second-chance opportunity with 43 seconds to play that extended  the Owl lead to three, and after a Bears turnover Hamilton added a pair of free throws that boosted the lead to five at 75-70 with six seconds left to seal the win.

Hamilton finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds, going over 1,100 rebounds in his career.   Juju Omot  (Springfield, Mass./Central) added 14 points, and Teng chipped in with 10 off the bench, connecting on 3 of 7 from long range.

Bridgewater was led by 20 points from Okoh, whoo battled through and 8-27 shoooting nght.  He added six assists and five steals.    Emerson Hableib (Carmel, Ind.) had 11 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks for the Bears.   Kikuba added 15 points and Jennings 10.

The Bears have wrapped up their regular season play, while Westfield will travel to Salem State on Saturday for the regular season finale.   Westfield is expected to host a first-round conference playoff game next week, pending the weekend results and tournament seedings from the league.

Westfield celebrated its seniors before the game, recognizing Hamilton, Brendan Keaveny (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy), Jerome Stephens (Dorchester, Mass./Kennedy Health Academy), along with student assistant coach Dontay Henry (Cleveland, Ohio) and manager Katelyn Flaherty (Westfield, Mass.).

The Owls also recognized senior cheerleaders Rachel Lemus, Abby  Ortiz, Chloe Palmer, Jenna Casine, Alexis Barrett, and Jayden Tower.