WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State senior JT Thompson (Columbia, S.C.) scored a team-high 21 points, but UMass Boston managed to pull away down the stretch to defeat the Owls 85-74 in a non-conference game from the Clark Athletic Center in Boston, Mass. on Thursday night.
The first half remained tightly contested throughout with UMass Boston securing the first sizeable run of the evening which was capped off by a Xavier McKenzie (Lowell, Mass.) jumper to put the Beacons up 32-23 with 7:07 to play in the half.
The Owls quickly responded with a 15-5 run as Brendan Keaveny (Quincy, Mass.) connected on a triple to trim the deficit to a single point. Malik Lorquet (Sharon, Mass.) added a dunk, then Jeremy Remigio (Santo Domingo, D.R.) buried a three pointer to punctuate the run and tie the game at 37 with 2:03 left in the half.
Both teams traded baskets, then UMass Boston broke off an 8-0 burst in the final minute of the period with consecutive threes from Emanuel Zayas (Hollywood, Fla.) and McKenzie to give the Beacons an eight-point lead heading into the break.
The second half began with another three by UMass Boston, this time from Mariano Rodriguez (Somerville, Mass.), then Lorquet converted a layup to stretch the Beacon lead to 12 points. Westfield would continue to claw back into the game, ripping off a 17-8 run in the middle stages of the period, including 11 points from Kumar Brown (Enfield, Conn.) who jammed home a dunk to cut the deficit to one point, 58-57 with 11:26 remaining in the game.
With the UMass Boston holding a one-point advantage, the Beacons would score the next eight points, with six of those coming from McKenzie to advance the lead to nine. Once again, the Owls charged back with seven-straight points from Thompson to trail 68-66 with under five minutes left in regulation.
Free throw shooting was critical down the stretch for UMass Boston, connecting on 12 of 13 free throws attempted over the final four minutes of the game to eventually put the game out of reach.
Brown and Remigio joined Thompson as the Owls leading scorers with Brown collecting 14 points and eight rebounds with Remigio adding 11 points. DaeJon Pendleton (Haverhill, Mass.) recorded a game-high nine assists.
Lorquet pulled down his ninth double-double of the season for the Beacons, tallying game highs in points (29) and rebounds (17) on an efficient 11 makes in 18 tries. McKenzie also filled up the stat sheet with 25 points and four assists. Rodriguez was the third Beacons' scorer in double figures, registering ten points.
Westfield State (1-9) continued their challenging non-conference schedule tonight and will wrap up 2022 on the road at Brandeis on Friday, December 30 for a 7:00 P.M. tipoff.