Westfield State 66, Worcester State 44

Box Score

Westfield, MA --- Sophomore reserve forward Christal Bello (West Boylston, MA) led an extremely balanced attack with 10 points as Westfield State College rolled to a 66-46 victory over Worcester State in the semifinals of the Massachusetts State College Athletics Conference women’s basketball tournament.

Westfield, 21-4 and the No. 1 seed, plays in Saturday’s championship game at 1:00. The Owls will host either Fitchburg State or Salem State.

“This was an outstanding win for us,” said Westfield State head coach Andrea Bertini. “We came ready to play and our bench play was unbelievable.”

Westfield’s reserves outscored Worcester’s bench by 23 points, 30-7. Sparking the Owls to a 44-28 first half lead were Bello and junior forward Molly Brogan (Mendon, MA), who scored six and nine points, respectively.

For the game, three players finished with nine points and two with eight points in the Owls’ balanced attack. And in the first half, Westfield shot a sizzling 57 percent from the floor, including 4-for-7 from 3-point range.

Lauren Sylai (Hadley, MA) scored nine points on three 3-point baskets and Brogan finished with nine points, all in the first half. Sophomore center Cassey Jouannet (Conway, MA) scored nine points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Andrea Wasuk (Lenox, MA) and Katie Sylvain (Hadley, MA) each had eight points.

Freshman guard Kaleigh Charette (Fairhaven) scored a game-high 17 points for Worcester State. Sophomore guard Alexis George (Worcester, MA) had 10 points. Junior forward Brianne Flanders (Southampton, MA) had four points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

The score was tied 17-all with 9:05 left in the first half. The Owls went on an 18-3 run over the next four minutes for 35-20 lead. In addition to his fine shooting, Westfield also clamped down defensively, forcing numerous turnovers.

Worcester finished its season with a 10-17, but the Lancers were the hot team coming into the tournament as they had won six straight conference games after losing to Westfield, 64-50, on Feb. 3.

At the outset of the second half, the Owls had a six-minute cold spell and Worcester went on a 9-1 run to close within eight points, 45-37. But senior guard Katie Sylvain canned a 3-pointer to give the Owls a 49-37 lead with 13:40 remaining. It was Westfield’s first field goal of the second half.

Westfield quickly built a 20-point lead midway thru the second stanza, and its biggest lead was 23 points, 66-43, with 3:43 remaining.

Release Courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information