WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Westfield State's Kuany Teng (Manchester, N.H.) scored a career high 30 points to lead the way as the Westfield State men's basketball team overcame Fitchburg State, 80-58 in a tough battle in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference semi-final game at the Woodward Center Thursday evening.
In the first half, the Westfield (21-4) started off hot, taking an 8-0 run in the first minute of play with Teng scoring the first points in the contest. Westfield full court pressed right out of the gate to lead to three quick buckets, and a one-handed put-back dunk from Justin Rennis (Springfield, Mass./Sabis), gave the Owls an 8-0 lead for force a Fitchburg State timeout just 1:16 into the contest.
Fitchburg (7-18) soon began to pick things up, finding themselves trailing by one, 8-7, with 16 minutes left in the first. Both teams battled hard, trading buckets, when the Falcons found themselves up one, 18-17, with 6:05 left in the half after a pull-up jumper from Frederick Siayor (Worcester, Mass./Tech).
Teng scored eight points in the last three minutes of the half, including a coast-to-coast buzzer-beating layup to give Westfield a 31-25 lead going into halftime.
The Owls struggled from the free-throw line in the first half, making just one of their first eight attempts, and shooting 6-14 from the foul line, which allowed the Falcons to keep it close.
Coming out of the half, Westfield picked up the pace, going on a 17-5 run in the first seven minutes of the second.
Fitchburg's Siayor, hit a pair of 3's with 10 minutes left in the contest to keep the Falcons in the game, followed by a layup from Tajahn Joyner (Hadley, Mass./Springfield Commonwealth Academy) to make the score 50-41.
Teng hit three 3-point shots late, followed by fast-break dunks from JT Thompson (Dutch Fork, S.C.) and Kumar Brown (Enfield, Conn.) in the final minute to seal the deal and send Westfield State to Saturday's championship game.
Westfield State will host #3 seed Worcester State in the championship game on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in the Woodward Center. The Lancers pulled a 77-68 upset at #2 Salem State tonight in the other semifinal game.
Teng finished 6-8 from behind the arc to fuel Westfield's win. Rennis and Brown added 10 points each, with Brown completing a double-double with 11 rebounds.
Westfield's Brendon Hamilton, the second-leading rebounder in the nation finished with 14 rebounds, but just five points as he was saddled with two early fouls and sat for long stretches in the first alf.
Fitchburg was led by Siayor, who had a team high of 13 points. Nathaniel Semedo (Bridgewater, Mass.) added eight points.
Saturday's game will be a rematch of the 2020 title game, when the Owls topped Worcester State, 81-77, the last time the league had a title game, as the 2020-21 season was canceled due to the pandemic.
-- written by Eric Perez, sports information intern