Westfield State men’s basketball senior Moody Bey poses with his family prior to the game. (WESTFIELD STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – Westfield State senior Vawn Lord (West Springfield, MA) led the Owls with 31 points as they defeated the MCLA Trailblazers 89-73, in the final MASCAC conference matchup of the regular season at the Woodward Center Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Owls clinch a share of the conference’s regular season title and the number-1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. The Owls finish with a 10-2 conference record, tied with Worcester State in the standings and having split a pair head-to-head match up, the league went five rows into the conference tiebreakers to split the tie based on the Owls having the better overall season record.
Lord connected on 11-13 from the foul line with 11 rebounds.
Senior Jauch Green, Jr. (Hartford, CT) reached the 1,000th-career point milestone in two seasons at Westfield State, recording 21 points with ten rebounds. Green has 1,691 points in a four-year collegiate career that includes two seasons at Western Connecticut State. He’s the 18th player to score 1,000 career points at Westfield State.
Teammate Marcus Collins (Cambridge, MA) gave the Owls defensive leverage with 13 rebounds and nine points. Senior Moody Bey (Springfield, MA) provided ten points with three steals and ten rebounds. Unusually, all five Westfield State starters finished with 10 or more rebounds in the game as Sam Traicoff (Beverly, Mass.) also grabbed 10 rebounds for the Owls.
Westfield State finishes the regular season with an overall record of 18-7 and a 10-2 in the MASCAC as the MCLA Trailblazers fall to 14-10 overall and 7-4 MASCAC.
The Owls led the Trailblazers 34-29 at the half and jumped out to an early second half 14-0 run, started by a Lord jump shot at 1:15. Westfield expanded their lead to as many as 21 points after a Bey layup at 14:08.
MCLA trimmed the Owls lead down to nine on several occasions in the closing minutes, cutting the Owl lead to 78-69 on freshman Quentin Gittens (Pittsfield, MA) drive with 1:54 remaining.
The Trailblazers’ effort was anchored by junior Noah Yearsley (Averill Park, NY/ Averill Park) helped MCLA netting 22 points. Freshman center Chris Becker (Lake George, NY/ Lake George) provided 12 points in the paint with 12 rebounds. Gittens shot 6-8 from the floor with 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Owls return to action on Tuesday, February 25, for the MASCAC playoff quarterfinal set for a 7:30 PM tip off at the Woodward Center. Westfield will face the winner of Tuesday’s game between #4 Bridgewater and #5 Salem State.
Westfield State honored its five senior players (Lord, Collins, Green, Traicoff and Bey), two managers and five senior cheerleaders prior to the game. – Courtesy of Sports Information Intern Jacob Solomons/Westfield State University Sports
