Thompson, Hamilton Help Owls Slay Bears in Semis, 89-79

WESTFIELD, Mass. –   Westfield's dynamic senior duo of Brendon Hamilton (Worcester, Mass.) and JT Thompson (Columbia, S.C./Dutch Fork) combined for 53 points as the Owls defeated Bridgewater State, 89-79 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball semifinals at the Tinsley Center in Bridgewater, Mass., on Friday night.  With the win the Owls will advance to the league championship game on Sunday for the fourth straight time.

Westfield will face top-seeded Worcester State, a 74-56 winner over #5 Fitchburg State tonight, at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, Feb, 25 at the Bresette Court at Worcester State.

Thompson posted 27 points on 10-21 shooting and 4-6 from long range, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out six assists.  Hamilton totaled 26 points and 12 rebounds, four steals and five assists, while throwing down several highlight reel dunks.

Westfield is now 12-15 overall and has won five straight and nine of their last 10 games.  Bridgewater's season comes to a close with an 18-8 overall record.

The Owls set the tone early on the defensive end, getting out to a 13-6 lead in the early going as Bridgewater shot just 3-15 and 0-7 from long range in that span.   In fact, Bridgewater was 0-12 from three-point range before Quinton Champagne (Wrentham, Mass. / B-R Regional) connected with 2:50 left in the first half.

Westfield led 18-8 after a Thompson 3-point play with 10:11 left, and boosted it to 23-10 on a Brendan Keaveny (Quincy, Mass.) 3-pointer just a couple possessions later.

The Owls closed the half with an 8-0 run, punctuated by a Hamilton dunk that made the score 40-25, which was followed by steal by DaeJon Pendleton (Haverhill, Mass.) who fed and Thompson for the two-handed tomahawk which gave the Owls a 17-point lead, their largest of the game to that point, at the half.

Westfield led 42-25 at the break. The Owls shot 18-35 (51.4 percent) in the first stanza, while Bridgewater was just 11-35 and 1-15 from three point range in the half.  Westfield out rebounded the Bears 30-13 in the half.  Thompson and Hamilton each finished with 12 points.   Emerson Halbleib (Carmel, Ind.) led the Bears with points.

Westfield extended the lead to as many as 23 points, leading 55-32 on Pendleton steal and Thompson fast break dunk with 13 minutes left in the half, but the vexatious Bears wouldn't go away.

Bridgewater made a quick 7-0 run with a layup from Halblieb, a three pointer from Alex Gonzalez (Peabody, Mass./Bishop Fenwick), and then a steal and a layup from Dante Kikuba (Framingham, Mass.) to cut the lead to 14, 78-64 with 3:04 left in regulation. Another layup from Kikuba cut the lead to 80-68 with just over two minutes to play.  Kikuba hit two free throws to cut it to 10, 80-70 with 1:29 left.

Westfield broke the Bears' pressure, and found Thompson for a trailing three to push the lead back to 13.   A rim-rattling fast break dunk from Kumar Brown (Enfield, Conn.) with 24 seconds left appeared as though it would the deal for the Owls.

But Champagne hit a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left for Bridgewater, then he got a steal and a layup on the ensuing inbounds play to cut the lead to eight points, 85-77, with 12.9 seconds to play.

Hamilton hit two free throws for the Owls to boost the lead back to 10 and time ran out on the Bridgewater comeback attempt.

Keaveny delivered 18 points on 5-11 shooting from downtown, and the Owls got lockdown defense from Pendleton, who finished with 6 assists, six rebounds and three steals in helping key the big lead.  Westfield finished with 25 assists on 32 buckets, and shot 9-17 (52.9 percent) from behind the arc.

Halbleib led Bridgewater with 24 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots. Champagne finished with 14 and Kikuba 13 and five assists and five steals.  The Bears shot just 4-28 (14.3 percent) from three-point land, and closed the rebounding gap in the second half, as they trailed 45-37 on the boards for the game.