Cougars Pounce on Owls, 91-64

WESTFIELD, Mass. – All five starters for Clark University finished in double-figures in scoring, led by 20 each from Isaiah Taylor (Lawrence, Mass./Lowell Catholic) and Bruce Santilius (Plainville, Mass./Bridgton Acad.) as the Cougars topped Westfield State, 91-64 in a non-conference game at the Woodward Center on Thursday night.

The Cougars shot better than 50 percent from the floor and a blistering 53.8 percent on 7-13 shooting from behind the arc in the first half as they built a 50-31 lead at the half.

Clark (7-0) extended the lead to as many as 36 points, 73-37 on a Mikey O'Brien (New York, NY) jumper with 13:56 left in the game.

Westfield (1-6) went to an all-out trapping defense at that points, and chipped away at the lead, using a 23-5 spurt that trimmed it down to as few as 17 at 78-60 on a Kumar Brown (Enfield, Conn.) free throw with 5:18 left in the game.

That was as close as the Owls would get, as O'Brien stopped the momentum with a three- pointer with 3:50 left that built the lead back to 21. 

O'Brien and Reid Neumann (Burbank, Calif.)  each added 11 points and Kekoa McArdle (Pittsfield, Mass./ NMH) had 10 and 16 rebounds to round out the Cougar starting five.  Ian Calabrese (Simsbury, Conn.) added 10 off the bench.

Westfield got 11 points and six rebounds off the bench from Brown, with JT Thompson (Columbia, S.C.) and Joe Meade (Westfield, Mass.) each adding nine. Brendon Hamilton (Worcester, Mass./Tech)had six points and 10 rebounds for the Owls.

Westfield will next play at Mitchell College on Saturday.