WESTFIELD – Westfield State University men’s basketball coach Rich Sutter earned his 400th career win as the Owls head men’s basketball coach as his team topped Worcester State 85-64 in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball game at the Woodward Center on Saturday afternoon.
Westfield State improved to 10-3, 2-0 in the MASCAC, while Worcester State is now 3-10 overall and 1-1 in the MASCAC.
Westfield State was led by 22 points and four assists from Jason James, and got 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists from Kenney Rogers. Xavier Lewis added 13 points and eight assists, and A.Z. Allah rounded out four players in double figures with 11 points and five rebounds.
Worcester State was led by 17 points and 10 rebounds from Joe Okla. Ethan Daleba added 13 points.
Westfield State jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first four minutes, capped by a putback from James as the Owls got an early layup and a 3-pointer from Lewis in the run while forceing seven Worcester State turnovers during that span.
Westfield State led 44-29 at the half. Jason James led the Owls with 15 points. Worcester State got six points each from Camdyn Shoesmith and Daniel Wondie in the opening 20 minutes.
Leading 48-33 with 17 minutes to play, Westfield State stretched the lead to 68-42 over the next seven minutes, capped by a three-pointer from Rogers.
Coach Sutter cleared the bench late with the game in hand.
Westfield State shot nearly 50 percent from the floor (31-64) and was 7-20 behind the arc, 16-26 at the line. Worcester State was limited to 32.4 percent from the floor (24-of-74), 6-of-28 downtown, and 10-of-16 at the line.
Sutter, already the winningest head coach in the history of the men’s basketball program, now has a career record of 400-300 in 27 years at Westfield State. The Bronx, N.Y. native took over the program for the 1998-99 season after a number of assistant coaching stops, the last at D1 Colgate before coming to Westfield.
Sutter took over a five-win team and was 6-19 in his first season but has had the Owls on a run over the past 10 years, winning 20 or more games four times in that span and the MASCAC title in three of the last five years with three NCAA tournament appearances in that span and four overall.
Sutter has a .571 winning percentage as the Westfield State bench boss and his teams are 102-56 since returning from the pandemic.
The 400 wins are the second most by any MASCAC men’s basketball coach; Bridgewater’s Joe Farroba won 402 games in a 36-year coaching career before retiring from coaching in 2022.
Sutter also has more wins than any Westfield State head coach. Current Owls women’s basketball mentor Andrea Bertini has 368 career collegiate wins and 321 with the program, and women’s soccer coach Todd Ditmar has piled up 337 wins, 223 at the school.
Sutter and the Owls will go for number 401 on Wednesday with a 7 p.m. start at MCLA in North Adams. – Courtesy of Westfield State University Sports
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Westfield State 78, Worcester State 67
WESTFIELD – Senior guard Tavi Williams (Springfield/Minnechaug) scored 15 points and snared 15 rebounds as Westfield State rode a big second half to a 78-67 win over Worcester State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference women’s basketball game at the Woodward Center on Saturday afternoon.
Westfield State improved to 9-4, 1-1 in the MASCAC, while Worcester State fell to 4-8, 1-1 in the league.
The Owls got 13 points off the bench from sophomore transfer Gianna Strange (Suffield Academy), of Westfield who joined the Owls during the semester break, and 12 points from Sophia Rockwood (Windsor, Vt). Williams added four assists and three steals in the big effort.
Westfield State countered a 21-point, 19-rebound effort from Lancers’ center Alana Smith (Chicopee). Lena Waldron (Quincy) added 16 points and Hanna Lomonaco (Northbridge) 12 for Worcester.
Westfield State opened the second half with a 7-0 run, with all the points coming from Morgan Berthiaume (Webster/ Douglas), on a pair of steals and layups and a left-win 3 pointer that gave the Owls a 46-40 lead just 1:26 into the second half forcing a timeout from the Lancers.
Rockwood added a triple for Westfield State to push the run to 10-0 and a 49-40 lead before Worcester’s Waldron snapped the string with a bucket. The Owls led 61-50 heading to the fourth quarter.
The Lancers pulled to within six at 65-59 on a layup from Aydan Gulliver (Cranston, Rhode Island/East) with 6:43 left, but that was as close as they could get.
Strange grabbed an offensive rebound and dribbled out for a turnaround 3-pointer at the 6:09 mark to give Westfield State some breathing room.
Caroline Galvani‘s (Framingham) 3-pointer after Williams grabbed an offensive rebound of her own free throw miss and kicked it out, gave the Owls a 75-61 lead with 3:18 to play.
Westfield State led 24-20 after a back-and-forth first quarter.
Worcester opened the second quarter with a 9-2 run to grab a 29-26 lead on a fastbreak layup from Waldron. The Owls answered with a trailer 3-pointer from Strange.
Westfield State grabbed a 34-29 lead before a Davis putback flipped the momentum.
The Lancers led 40-39 at the half behind 15 points and eight rebounds from Alana Smith. Sophia Rockwood led Westfield State with nine points off the bench with Strange adding seven. A total of 27 of the Owls’ 39 points came from the bench in the first half.
Westfield State forced 41 turnovers from Worcester State that the Owls turned into 36 points. The Owls finished 22-32 at the foul line, with the Lancers netting 15 of 21.
Westfield State is next scheduled to play at MCLA in a conference game Wednesday at 5 p.m. – Courtesy of Westfield State University Athletics
MEN’S ICE HOCKEY
Westfield State 4, Post University 1
WESTFIELD – Nicolas Coppola (Glendale, Ariz.) got the scoring started in the second period for Westfield State which pushed their winning streak to five games after a 4-1 victory over Post University in a non-conference game from Amelia Park Arena on Jan. 9.
It was the 10th win of the season for the Owls, who advanced to 10-4. The Eagles fell to 3-9-1.
After a choppy first period, Westfield State found its skating legs in the middle stanza. Steven Sedivy-Blengino (Prague, Czech Republic) possessed the puck at the defensive blue line, then flipped a cross-corner dump pass up ice to Coppola who shielded a Post defender and tucked home the game’s opening goal with 12:26 left in the period.
Westfield State tallied a second goal in the final five minutes of the period with Emile Pichette (Saint-Eustache, Quebec) dishing a pass to Louis Ouellet (Baie-Comeau, Quebec) who wristed home a shot that knocked the water bottle off the top of the cage for a two-goal lead with 4:25 left in the second.
Westfield State sealed the game in the third period after a major penalty for the Eagles set up a power play marker for the Owls. Good puck movement in the offensive end led to a one-timer for Pichette which was saved by Benjamin Cunneen with the rebound bouncing over his shoulder and into the crease where Cannon Bonifay (Fort Worth, Texas) potted his fourth goal of the season into the open net for a 3-0 advantage.
Aidan Canady attempted to give Post University late life with a goal with 4:55 left in the game but Brett Williams (Easton) recorded a fourth goal for Westfield State inside the final minute to punctuate the victory.
Post held a narrow 37-35 shots advantage as Westfield State got another strong effort in net from Aiden Winslow (Jacksonville, Fla.) who turned aside 36 shots, tying his third highest total of the season. For the week, the sophomore netminder stopped 66 of 67 total shots, improving to 8-4 overall. Both efforts this week served as his top two save percentage figures this season as well.
Cunneen made 31 saves for the Eagles as the Owls ramped up their shot numbers in each period.
Westfield State will hit the road for their next game as the Owls visit Saint Anselm for a non-conference game on Tuesday at 6 p.m. – Courtesy of Westfield State University Athletics