WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State senior forward Brendon Hamilton (Worcester, Mass.) scored 21 points and snagged 18 rebounds and sophomore Dom Strother (Edinburg, Va.) added 16 points and 14 boards as #3 Westfield State survived a scrappy effort from #6-seed Fitchburg State, 77-71 in the first round of the 2024 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament at the Woodward Center on Wednesday night.
Westfield improves to 19-7 on the season and advances to play #2 seed Bridgewater State on Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Tinsley Center in Bridgewater.
Fitchburg's season comes to a close with a 3-23 overall record.
The Falcons record belies their efforts tonight. Westfield led 40-33 at the half, and by as many as 10 midway through the second half, but could never shake the Falcons. Westfield led 74-71 with less than 30 seconds to play in regulation, when Fitchburg's Frederick Siayor (Worcester, Mass.) got a good look at a three point shot that wouldn't go down, and the Owls got the long rebound and made 3 of 4 free throws in the closing seconds to seal the win.
Westfield parlayed its size advantage all night, with the 6-6 Hamilton and the 6-10 Strother both contributing to a 57-36 advantage on the boards. The Falcons largely hemmed in Hamilton in the first half, but the double and triple teams led to easy buckets for Strother, who led Westfield with 11 points in the first half. Hamilton did his damage in the second half, as the Owls consistently pounded the ball inside, and he responded with 17 of his points in the second half.
Kuany Teng (Manchester, N.H.) added 13 points, as he added several well-timed three pointers while shooting 4-9 from long range. Point guard Angel Price-Espada (Cambridge, Mass.) handed out six assists and scored nine points for the Owls.
Fitchburg was led by 20 points from Siayor, while Donald Brown Jr. (Baltimore, Md.) added 14. Javon Taylor (Cambridge, Mass.) chipped in with 12 points and nine rebounds and Alex Moemeka (West Hartford, Conn.) netted 12 points.
For Westfield, Hamilton now has 1,290 career points, moving into 11th place on Westfield's all time scoring list, and ran his career rebound total to 1,148, just 46 behind Russell Thompson's record of 1,194. Hamilton had his eighth consecutive double double, and his 10th straight game of 13 or more rebounds.