Women’s Basketball Suffers First Conference Loss to Westfield; 86-77

Framingham, Mass.- The Framingham State women's basketball team fell to the Owls of Westfield State by a score of 86-77 in a MASCAC matchup Wednesday evening in Framingham. With the win the Owls improve to 10-4 and 3-0 in league play. The Rams slip to 9-5 and 2-1 in the league.

The Owls were paced by senior Forbasaw Nkamebo (Amherst, Mass.) & junior Kirsy Segarra (Holyoke, Mass.) who each scored 18 points. Nkamebo registered a double-double also collecting a team-high 12 rebounds. During the 3^rd quarter she surpassed the 1,000 career point milestone. Junior Jill Valley (Orange, Mass.) also contributed 17 points to the Owls attack.

The Rams were led by sophomore Raegan Mulherin (Baldwinville, Mass.) who scored a game-high 28 points. Junior Monta Connolly (Lynn, Mass.) scored 21 points while freshman Tiphani Harris (Revere, Mass.) scored 14 and added 4 blocked shots. Junior Alycia Rackliffe (Feeding Hills, Mass.) registered a double-double with 10 points, 14 boards and added a game-high 6 rejections.

The Owls controlled the pace of play for most of the 1^st period leading 33-14 after one. After being down by 28 just about half way through the 2^nd frame the Rams bounced back and entered the halftime break trailing 54-37.

The Rams slowly clawed back into the game and after two Harris free throws they found themselves down ten with just over five minutes to play. The Owls answered on their next possession with a Valley trey and the visitors pulled away.  The Rams were able cut the deficit to nine in the final minute but that is as close as they would come.

Westfield was 33-of-87 (37.9%) from the field while the Rams were 30-for-77 (39%). The Owls also shot 86 percent from the line to the Rams 71 percent.

The Rams return to the court on Saturday, January 16^th when they host MCLA in a MASCAC contest at 1:00 p.m. The Owls travel to Eastern Connecticut State for a non-conference matchup on Sunday, January 27^th at 6:00 p.m.