Worcester State 77, Southern Maine 68
Williamstown, MA --- Senior Maurice Horton (Detroit, MI) led three players in double figures as he compiled a game-best 28 points in a 77-68 victory this afternoon over Southern Maine in the consolation round of the Purple and Gold Invitational hosted by Williams.
With the win the Lancers snapped a four-game losing streak to improve to 4-6 while Southern Maine falls to 2-9.
Horton, who was named to the All-Tournament team nearly flirted with his second-straight triple double as he ended with 9 boards and 8 assists. Horton has also scored 20-plus points in six of WSC's 10 contests this season.
The Lancers were also paced by junior Ryan Testagrossa (Athol, MA) who finished with 16 points as he was 4-for-5 from beyond the arc while senior Pat Hamilton (Templeton, MA) chipped in with 13 points and 9 boards. Third-year Dave Douillette (Bridgewater, MA) also grabbed seven caroms in the triumph for WSC.
WSC started off the contest making 14 of their first 20 shots from the field to open up a 34-14 lead with 6:09 left in the opening period and led by as many as 23 points (42-19) with just under four minutes remaining before Southern Maine cut down the advantage to make the score 50-37 at the intermission.
With the Lancers up 54-42 early in the second period, the Huskies used a 6-2 run to get within striking distance at eight, but WSC soon extended the lead back into double-digits again. Worcester State's largest edge was 16 points - a mark they hit twice - before Southern Maine went on a 10-2 spurt to threaten with just under five minutes left (67-61).
Worcester State answered with a lay-up from Horton to make the score 69-61, but the Huskies used five quick points by junior Otis Smith (Almonte Springs, FL) to close the gap to three points (69-66) with 2:05 remaining.
Freshman Tim Henault (Lunenburg, MA) would then hit a clutch trey to respond bring the lead back up to 72-66 with 30 seconds later as the Lancers would keep it a two possession game for the remainder of the contest. WSC canned five of their last six free throw attempts to help ice the game
Worcester State came out strong shooting 67 percent in the first half (20-for-30) before they settled down to shoot 33 percent from the field in the final stanza (9-for-27). WSC also connected for 9-for-16 of their shots from downtown (56%).
The Huskies shot a modest 40 percent for the game (29-for-57), but only made 7 of their 23 shots from the three-point line (30%).
The Lancers dominated the boards (41-28) and the paint (30-26), but it was Southern Maine who ended with leads in points off turnovers (17-5) and second chance points (16-5).
Worcester State will take on Salve Regina at home on Thursday at 7 PM as a warm-up to their conference opener against MCLA on Saturday while the Huskies travel to Husson on Wednesday for a 7:30 tip-off.
Williams won the Purple & Gold Invitational crown with a 101-88 win over Colby-Saywer in the championship.