Men's Basketball Falls to MASCAC Leader Westfield State

Westfield, Mass.  – The Westfield State University men's basketball team rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to post a 65-56 win over Framingham State University in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) men's basketball game at the Woodward Center on Saturday.

Westfield stays unbeaten in MASCAC play with a 7-0 record (13-5 overall) and sits alone atop the league standings.  Framingham falls to 5-13 overall on the year and 0-7 in the MASCAC.

Westfield trailed 30-21 at halftime thanks to hot three-point shooting from the Rams.  Framingham made five of 11 three-point tries in the opening stanza, including three from Daniel Gould (Quincy, Mass.), and a banked-in shot-clock beater from Ronnie DeBarros (New Bedford, Mass.).

Westfield surged out of the intermission with the first eight points of the half including a pair of layups from Grant Cooper (Northampton, Mass.).

With the scored tied at 34-all with 13:39 to play Westfield grabbed the lead for good on a spectacular crossover dribble and high arching runner in the paint from Robbie Jones (Chicopee, Mass.).  The bucket from Jones sparked a 7-0 spurt.

Framingham had one more run left as they sawed the Owls lead back to two points, 50-48, on a Gould three-pointer with 6:33 left in the game. Westfield responded with nine straight points to build the lead back to 11 and hung on down the stretch.

The Owls were led by 18 points from senior guard Andre King (Springfield, Mass.).  Cooper added 13 and senior forward Dan Tessier (Uxbridge, Mass.) finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Framingham got 17 points from Gould, who was 5-10 from three point range.   Tony Alexandre (Hyde Park, Mass.) finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Joseph McCabe (Canton, Mass.) scored 12 points. 

The Rams connected on just three of 14 second half three-point attempts, as Westfield outscored Framingham 44-26 in the second half.

Westfield will travel to Bridgewater State on Tuesday night in a battle of the top two teams in the MASCAC standings.  Framingham will play at Fitchburg on Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m.

Release courtesy of WSU Sports Information.