Andre King scores 23 points against Wesleyan.
WESTFIELD – Westfield State University falls to visiting Wesleyan University, 63-83, on Thursday, December 4 in the Woodward Center.
Senior Owl guard Andre King (Springfield, Mass./ Suffield Academy) scored a game-high 23 points, but a balanced Cardinal attack had five players record double-digit point totals in the win.
Wesleyan starters Rashid Epps (Harlem, N.Y./ Hun School), BJ Davis (Hamden, Conn./ Hamden Hall), Harry Rafferty (Dubuque, Iowa/ Phillips Exeter), Jack Mackey (Warwick, N.Y./ Vermont Academy) and reserve Joseph Kuo (New York, N.Y./ The Governor’s Academy) each contributed at least 12 points in the victory.
Wesleyan shot a blistering 54% (7-13) from beyond the arc in the first half to take control of the contest early. The backcourt duo of Rafferty and Mackey each hit four 3-pointers to lead the long range assault on the day.
The only Owl lead of the night came three minutes into the contest when King hit one of his own four 3-pointers to stake a two point advantage.
The Wesleyan lead swelled to 17 with 6:52 remaining in the half on a Joe Edmonds (Oklahoma City, Okla./ Bishop McGuinness Catholic) jumper before a late surge from the Owls brought it back to 10 heading into the break. Tchuijo Nkamebo (Amherst, Mass./ Amherst) highlighted the run with a steal at half court and break-away dunk as the first half expired.
The Owls came out in a full- court press to start the second half and forced three quick Cardinal turnovers to cut the deficit to nine on two occasions. King, Dan Tessier (Uxbridge, Mass./ Uxbridge) and Grant Cooper (Springfield, Mass./ Northampton) each supplied transition buckets but the Owls were unable to close the gap further.
Tessier and Cooper led the Owls with seven rebounds each, Epps paced the Cardinals with a game-high eight boards.
The loss brings Westfield to 5-4 on the season and Wesleyan improves to 6-2.
Westfield travels to Springfield College on December 10 for their final game of the fall semester while Wesleyan heads to the Daytona Beach Shootout on December 19 to take on Birmingham Southern.
