Men's Hoops Tops Framingham State on the Road, 68-57

Westfield State men's basketball placed four players in double figures in scoring, as the rallied past Framingham State, 68-57 in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game on Wednesday evening at the Logan Gymnasium in Framingham.

The Owls improve to 5-3 in conference play and sit in third place in the league standings, just one game behind Bridgewater State in the race for conference playoff seeding.  Westfield is now 6-14 overall.   Framingham dips to 1-7 in the MASCAC and 4-17 overall.

Westfield trailed by as many as seven points (43-36) early in the second half, but pair of FTs from Kobe Parker (Chicopee, Mass.) gave the Owls a 45-43 lead with about 12 minutes left in the game.

Westfield led 58-50 after a pair of three pointers from JT Thompson (Columbia, SC/Dutch Fork)  extended the lead with 6:30 left to play in the game, and the Owls maintained their advantage down the stretch.

Thompson led the Owls with 16 points, connecting on 3 of 5 from long range.  Kumar Brown (Enfield, Conn.) and Brendon Hamilton (Worcester, Mass./Tech) each added 14, and Gerry McManus (Hudson, Mass.) finished with career bests of 12 points and eight assists.

Westfield connected on 24 of its 30 free throw attempts in the game.  Both teams battled foul problems in the paint, as Hamilton was saddled with a pair of early fouls in the first half, and fouled out late, while Framingham posts JD Okafor and Juran Ligonde finished with four and five fouls, respectively.

Ligonde made the most of Hamilton's time on the pine with foul trouble, as the D2 transfer finished with 27 points on 11-16 shooting and snagged 15 rebounds. Okafor finished with 12 points, the only other Ram to hit double figures in scoring.

Framingham used a 12-2 spurt early to take a 12-4 lead, as Westfield was just 2 for first 11 from the floor in the ealy going.

Framingham led 28-19 after an Okafor three-pointer with four minutes left in the first half.

That brought Hamilton back into the game after 11 minutes on the bench with foul trouble.  Returning with 3:50 left in the half, Hamilton got a layup on his first offensive possession and a trip later rolled down the lane for a two handed-dunk that trimmed the lead to 30-25 with two and a half minutes left in the opening period.

Framingham led 34-31 at the half.  Brown led Westfield with 12 in the first half after scoring nine of the Owls first 11 points in the game.

Westfield will be back in action on Saturday, with a conference game at Salem State at noon.