WESTFIELD, Mass. – Senior guard Bobby Sommers (Southborough, Mass./St. Marks School) scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Amherst, as the Mammoths men's basketball team pulled away late to defeat Westfield State, 77-59 in a non-conference game at the Woodward Center on Thursday evening.

Amherst improves to 6-2 on the year, while Westfield is now 6-3.

The Mammoths led 36-26 at the half, using a significant size advantage in the paint to limit Westfield to just 34.6 percent shooting from the floor, and 33.9 for the game.

The first 10 minutes of the second half featured plenty of competitive basketball, as the scrappy Owls hung tough.  Westfield scored thr first four points of the half, and them trimmed the lead down to four, 42-38, on Kenneth Rogers, Jr.'s (Springfield, Mass./Springfield Int. Charter) drive with 15:02 left in the game.

The Mammoths boosted the lead back up to nine, at 49-40 with a jumper from CJ Mitchell (Windsor, CT/Hotchkiss) with 12:04 left, but Westfield again battled back, trimming the lead down to five on several occasions, the last at 51-46 on Jordan Lanoue's (Belchertown, Mass.) lay up with 9:29 left in the game.

Amherst pulled away with a 14-1 spurt from the 7:25 mark to the 3:19 mark, spurred by seven points in that span from Sommers, who converted a dunk off a turnover and then capped the run with a 3-pointer that gave the Mammoths a 69-50 edge.

Westfield was led by 15 points and four steals from Angel Price-Espada (Cambridge, Mass./Pope John XXIII).  Lid Moreland (Bridgeport, Conn./Bunnell)  added 11 points and six boards, and Eric Johnson (Houston, Tex./Travis) had a strong game with 10 points, eight rebounds and four steals.

Amherst got 13 points from Mitchell and 11 points and six assists from Chris Hammond (Los Angeles, Calif./Campbell Hall). The Mammoths shot 46.6 percent (27-58) from the floor for the game, and out-rebounded Westfield 41-31.

Westfield State will be back in action on Saturday, traveling to face Colby-Sawyer (NH) College at 3:00 p.m.