WESTFIELD, Mass.  – First-year guard Xavier Lewis scored a career-high 20 points to lead five Owls in double figures as Westfield State used a big run late in the first half to pull away to a 116-71 men's basketball win over Framingham State in the conference opener of MASCAC play at the Athletics and Recreation Center on Wednesday evening in Framingham. 

The Owls narrowly missed the program record for points in a game, the 116 just three points shy of the school-record mark of 119 set in the 1971-72 season in a win over SUNY-New Paltz.

The Owls blistered the nets all night, shooting 56.8 percent (42-74) from the floor, and 40.6 percent (13-32) from three point range, and 86.4 percent (19-22) from the foul line.

Juju Omot added 19 points, Lid Moreland 16, Dom Strother had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Kuany Teng added 14 points.

Westfield improves to 10-4, 1-0 in the MASCAC, while Framingham is now 4-9, 0-1 in the league.

Kyle Philistin led Framingham with 23 points and five rebounds while shooting 10-15 from the floor. Jonathan Noel and Adonis Vachon added 10 each for the Rams.

Westfield trailed 21-18 after the Rams' Jonathan Noel went 1-2 at the line with 11:07 left in the first half.  From there, Westfield embarked on a 33-13 spree over the next nine and a half minutes to lead 51-34 after a Moreland layup with 1:29 left in the half.

Teng scored eight points with a pair of three pointers in the run, and Lewis added seven in the key stretch to help the Owls outdistance the rams.

Westfield opened the second half every bit as hot, boosting the lead all the way up to 32 points, 82-50 after back to back three pointers from Juju Omot with 12:30 left to play.

Westfield topped the 100-point mark on a three-pointer from Lewis with five minutes left in regulation time.

Westfield will be back in action with another conference game on Saturday, hosting Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts at 2:00 p.m.

Framingham will travel to Salem State for a 2:00 p.m. conference tip.