WESTFIELD, Mass. – Ten fourth quarter points from Maddie Pond (Holyoke, Mass.) helped lead the Westfield State Owls to a 71-61 comeback win over the Bridgewater State Bears on Senior Night on Wednesday evening at the Woodward Center in Westfield, Mass.
The Owls improve to 15-9 overall and 8-3 in the MASCAC. The Bears fall to 14-11 on the season and 10-2 in the league.
Westfield honored their six seniors prior to the start of tonight's game: Jess Gardner, Jordyn Lummus, Mia-Angelina Leslie, Lindsey Bohenko, Olivia Hadla, and Jordan Grant. At halftime of the contest, Westfield State Athletics partook in the annual Director of Athletics 3.0 Honor Roll presentation, recognizing student-athletes who received a fall semester grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
The Owls found themselves trailing the Bears by 33-21 as they entered the halftime break, with Hadla, the Owls leading scorer entering the night, leaving the game due to an injury. The Owls rallied in her absence, using a strong third quarter led by nine points from senior Jordyn Lummus (Pittsfield, Mass.) to get the Owls back in the game. The Owls used a 12-2 scoring run to cut the Bears lead to one point, finishing the third with the Bears leading, 49-46.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Owls were met with more adversity as two free throws from Sydney Bradbury (East Bridgewater, Mass.) gave the Bears a five-point lead. After the two free throws, a layup from Pond cut the deficit to three for the Owls.
Two consecutive layups from Bridgewater's Caroline Tripp (Plymouth, Mass.) built the Bridgewater lead back up to seven with 8:31 to play in the fourth. Tripp finished with six points, a team high six assists and eight rebounds.
The Owls responded with a three from Pond and then a layup from Hannah Sheldon (Taunton, Mass.) with 5:48 to go in the fourth brought the Owls within one.
On the next possession, Sheldon grabbed a defensive rebound, and took the ball up court where she found Pond wide open in the corner for the go-ahead triple to give the Owls their first lead of the night since the 55 second mark of the first quarter.
From that point forward, the Owls would hold on to the lead by playing strong defense, forcing the Bears to turn it over twice, and executing at the free throw line in part to the shooting of Morgan Berthiaume (Webster, Mass.) who iced the game at the line, hitting nine of her ten free throw attempts.
Seven of the Bears 18 turnovers came in the fourth quarter.
The Owls only had the lead twice in the first three quarters of play, when they scored the first basket of the game and temporarily led with 0:46 seconds to go in the first. But an answer three from Bradbury gave Bridgewater back the advantage to close out the first, 17-15.
Three straight triples in a row from Bradbury, who ended the game with a game-high 28 points, built the Bears lead to five points. The Owls were held scoreless for four minutes of the second quarter which allowed the Bears to open their lead up to 12 at the break.
The Owls had four players in double figures. Octaviana Williams (Springfield, Mass.) and Berthiaume each scored 14 points with Williams pulling down a game-high ten rebounds. Pond followed with 12 points, ten of which came in the final frame. Jordan Grant (Gray, Maine) finished with ten points and eight rebounds.
For the Bears, Kylie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass.) had ten points and six rebounds. Jessica D'Amours (Feeding Hills, Mass.) tied the team high with eight rebounds.
Westfield State will wrap up the regular season on Saturday as the Owls travel to Salem State for a noon tipoff. Bridgewater State finished their regular season schedule and will await their playoff positioning and opponent for next week.
Written by Jordan Aguiar – WSU Sports Information Intern