Alyssa Camara and the Westfield State women’s basketball team battled Framingham State on Saturday. (WESTFIELD STATE UNIVERSITY FILE PHOTO)
FRAMINGHAM – Framingham State’s Emily Velozo (Tweksbury, Mass.) scored 30 points to lead the way for the Rams in a 100-74 win over Westfield State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game at the Framingham Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon.
Rams’s senior guard Mary Kate O’Day (Berlin, Mass.) tallied 12 points to move into second on the Framingham State University women’s basketball career scoring list.
Framingham (15-5, 7-0 MASCAC) led 14-11 after one quarter, but the Owls (8-12, 5-2 MASCAC) quickly retook the lead, 15-14, on a Natalia Falcone jumper just under a minute into the second quarter.
The Rams used a 14-1 run over the next five minutes taking the lead for good and opening up a 28-16 lead.
The Rams extended the lead to as many as 24 in the quarter on a free throw by Velozo late in the second quarter before the Rams took a 48-29 lead into the locker room. The Rams shot 83% from behind the three point line (5-of-6) in the second quarter.
Westfield connected on just 3 of 22 three-point tries in the first half in spotting Framingham the big lead.
The Owls chipped away at the lead in the third quarter and trailed by 13, 60-47, midway through the frame, but the Rams rattled off five straight pushing the lead back to 19, and maintained that lead before extending it in the fourth quarter.
O’Day connected on 5-of-12 from the floor in the game for her 12 points and added six rebounds, five assists, two steals and four blocks. O’Day now has 1,411 points in her four years with the Rams and surpassed former Ram (and former Westfield State assistant coach) Kristen Hoffman’s 1,408 career points to move into second all-time. Hoffman played for the Rams from 2010-14
Senior guard Emily Velozo (Tewksbury, Mass.) led all scorers in the game with 30 points on 10-of-15 from the floor including 5-of-9 from behind the arc. Velozo added five rebounds, four assists and three steals.
The duo of freshmen forwards Flannery O’Connor (Amesbury, Mass.) and Katty Haidul (Wakefield, Mass.) recorded double doubles in the contest, while classmate Sarah Sullivan (Sheffield, Mass.) finished just shy of a double double. Haidul finished the game with 15 points, 10 boards and two blocks, while O’Connor scored 13 and grabbed 11 boards. Sullivan finished the game with 14 points and nine rebounds.
The Owls were led by a team-high 21 points and 13 rebounds from senior Melissa Gray (Peabody, Mass.). Gray connected on 10-of-26 from the floor and added four steals.
Sophomore Isabella Aitken (Pittsfield, Mass.) chipped in with 14 points and three rebounds for the Owls, while freshman Alison Mendel (Adams, Mass.) added 10 points off the bench.
Westfield finished up 9-48 (18.8 percent) from three point range. The Rams shot nearly 56 percent from the field for the game and were 8-18 (44 percent from three point range. The Owls were +11 in turnover margin (30-19), but Framingham parlayed its size advantage into a 55-40 advantage in rebounds. Framingham held a 22-15 advantage in free throws.
The Rams are back in action next Saturday afternoon when they travel to Worcester State for a MASCAC clash at 1 p.m., while the Owls host Worcester State on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. – Courtesy of Westfield State University Sports
