Grant Cooper powers to the basket with the score tied at 56-all. Cooper missed the shot but Tchuijo Nkamebo (No. 24) soared high above the rim for the putback to give the Owls the lead for good. (Photo by Mickey Curtis)
WESTFIELD – Junior forward Grant Cooper (Northampton) had team highs of 17 points and eight rebounds to lead Westfield State University to a 69-60 come-from-behind victory over Plymouth State University in the Rick Martin/Holiday Inn Express Men’s Basketball Classic on Saturday, Nov. 16.
Westfield State was the only unbeaten team in the Classic, also defeating another Little East Conference school – the University of Southern Maine – on Friday night, 68-60.
Sparked by 12 second-half points from Cooper, the Owls erased a seven-point deficit, 53-46, with 8:22 remaining. Westfield also got a big boost from junior reserve guard Robby Jones of Chicopee, who scored 10 points, all in the second half.
Jones nailed a 3-point basket from the top of the key and Cooper converted a conventional 3-point play as the Owls pulled to with a point, 53-52, with 6:22 remaining.
Westfield took the lead, 54-53, on two Cooper free throws, and capped a 10-0 scoring run on a Jones layup for a 56-53 edge with 4:17 remaining.
Plymouth knotted the score at 56-all on a 3-point basket by Alex Burt at the 3:39 mark, but Westfield pulled away in the closing minutes.
The Owls regained the lead for good, 58-56, when sophomore forward Tchuijo Nkamebo of Amherst soared above the rim for an offensive rebound and dropped the ball through the hoop.
After Plymouth’s Logan Kesty canned a free throw, Cooper and Jones teamed up to score eight of Westfield’s final 10 points in the last two minutes.
The teams exchanged baskets in the first half as four points was the largest lead for both teams. The Owls led 33-32 at the break but Plymouth maintained a single-digit lead for most of the second half by dominating post play. A layup by Shomari Morgan gave the Panthers a 49-42 lead with 11:38 remaining, and they took another seven-point lead, 53-46, on two free throws by Uche Nwokeji.
Despite the setback, Plymouth outrebounded Westfield, 43-24, including 23 offensive rebounds. But the Owls shot 49 percent from the floor (22-45), 72 percent from the foul line (23-32) and took care of the ball fairly well for the second straight game with 12 turnovers.
Plymouth shot 40 percent from the field (23-57) and canned only 8 of 15 free throws. Freshman guard Curtis Arsenault scored a game-high 20 points for the Panthers. Nwokeji tallied 15 points and Mark MacGregor finished with eight points and eight rebounds.
Also scoring in double figures for the Owls was junior point guard Jordan Santiago of Westfield High School with 10 points. Junior reserve forward Dan Johnson of Belchertown contributed eight points. Santiago and Cooper each had three steals.
