Westfield State Athletics

Box Score

WESTFIELD – Worcester State withstood a Westfield State comeback to hold on for a 46-43 victory in MASCAC women’s basketball Feb. 2.

The Lancers, who led by 16 points halfway thru the second half, improved to 11-9 overall and 5-3 in the conference.

Furthermore, it was a hard-earned 200th career victory for Worcester State head coach Karen Tessmer, whose record is 200-214 in 16 years with the Lancers.

It was a defensive struggle as the game was tied seven times in the first half and Westfield (7-13, 1-7) held a 22-20 intermission advantage. But the Lancers went on an 8-0 in the first two minutes of the second half. And a 22-4 run gave Worcester State a 16-point, 42-26 lead, with 9:52 remaining.

But the Owls held the Lancers to just one field goal the remainder of the game as they nearly pulled off a big comeback victory.

Alexis George (Worcester/Holy Name), Worcester’s only player in double figures with 13 points, scored the Lancers’ final field goal on a layup for make it 44-32 at the 8:00 mark.

Westfield then scored 11 unanswered points - the final four when Ashley Finnegan (Worcester/Holy Name) converted steals into layups - to pull within a point, 44-43, with 1:04 remaining.

After a missed layup by George, Westfield turned over the ball with 24 seconds left and was forced to foul. George missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw, Westfield grabbed the rebound, then called a timeout with 17.5 seconds remaining.

But the Westfield comeback abruptly ended when Sarah Boudreau drove to the basket and missed a shot in heavy traffic. Worcester’s Bri Flanders grabbed the rebound then made two frees throws with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Finnegan led all scorers with 22 points, just over half of Westfield’s team total. Westfield’s second leading scorer was sophomore reserve guard Janae Jones (Springfield/Minnechaug) with six points; she also had a game-high five steals.

Reilly O’Keefe (Warren) had eight points and a game-high seven rebounds for the Lancers. Kaleigh Charette (Fairhaven) finished with nine points and six boards.