WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State junior Maddie Pond (Holyoke, Mass.) led Westfield with 18 points but the Owls were unable to overcome a third-quarter upswing by Western New England, falling 80-63 in a non-conference game on Saturday afternoon from the Woodward Center in Westfield, Mass.
The Owls drop to 4-5 on the season while the Golden Bears improve to 7-3 overall.
The opening frame consisted of scoring runs on both sides with Westfield jumping out to an early 6-0 lead only to see Western New England answer with an 11-0 run which was capped off by an Emma Kahn three-pointer. The Owls answered with five straight points to tie the game after a triple by Morgan Berthiaume (Webster, Mass.).
The lead changed hands twice more in the first quarter before the Golden Bears closed the frame on a 7-0 run with Caitlyn Hunt (Wallingford, Conn.) converting a three-point play to put Western New England ahead 19-13 after ten minutes of play.
Lindsey Carey (Greenfield, N.H.) stretched the Golden Bears' lead into double digits after connecting on a three-pointer just over the midway point of the second quarter to open up a 27-15 advantage. The Golden Bear lead got up to as many as 14 points before Pond snapped the scoring burst with a triple, then Octaviana Williams (Springfield, Mass.) intercepted a pass and sent the ball up court to Jordan Grant (Gray, Maine) who scored a layup to cut the game to nine points.
The Owls held Western New England scoreless for the final 3:58 of the half, scoring nine unanswered points with Sophia DeAngelis (Braintree, Mass.) hitting a jumper with 15 seconds left to make it a 31-26 halftime score.
In the second half, Western New England pushed their lead back to double digits, opening the quarter with another scoring run of seven points to drive the lead to 12 points. Olivia Hadla (Westfield, Mass.) buried a pair of threes on consecutive possessions to put the Owls within striking distance, but a scoring drought of nearly four minutes allowed the Golden Bears to push the lead to 21 points with 3:33 remaining in the quarter.
The Owls would get as close as 15 points behind for the remainder of the game, the most recent with just over eight minutes left after a Grant layup. However, Western New England's offense continued to thrive in the final frame as the Golden Bears would score on four of their next five possessions to ultimately put the game out of reach.
Pond scored 13 of her 18 total points in the second half, burying a game-high four triples. Hadla followed wirh 14 points and three steals. Grant was the third Owls player in double figures, posting 11 points. Westfield shot 38.1% (24-63) from the floor in the contest and connected on nine of 33 three-pointers.
Shaina Cooney led all scorers with 19 points, including eight points in the fourth quarter alone. She also grabbed nine rebounds. Carey and Hunt combined for 28 points off the bench to pace a Golden Bears' attack that shot 59.4% in the second half.
Westfield State remains at home for their next game, hosting MIT on Monday at 7:00 P.M. from the Woodward Center in Westfield, Mass. Western New England will face Wentworth at home after the Holiday break on Tuesday, January 2 at 5:30 P.M.