Sutter Wins 400th Game As Owls Douse Worcester State, 85-64

WESTFIELD, MASS. -- 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 improves to 10-3, 2-0 in the MASCAC, while Worcester State is now 3-10 overall and 1-1 in the MASCAC.

Westfield 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 was led by 17 points and 10 rebounds from Joe Okla, Ethan Daleba added 13 points.

The Owls 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 three-pointer from Lewis in the run as Westfield forced seven Worcester State turnovers in that span.

Westfield led 44-29 at the half.   Jason James led the Owls with 15 points.     Worcester got six points each from Camdyn Shoesmith and Daniel Wondie in the opening 20 minutes.

Leading 48-33 with 17 minutes to play, the Owls 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 shot nearly 50 percent from the floor (31-64) and was 7-20 behind the arc, 16-26 at the line.   Worcester was limited to 32.4 percent from the floor (24-74) , 6-28 downtown, and 10-16 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.  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 Owls' 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 Owls, and women's soccer coach Todd Ditmar has piled up 337 wins, 223 at Westfield State.

Sutter won his 300th career game in 2019, with a dramatic buzzer beating win over then national #3 Amherst College.

Sutter and the Owls will go for number 401 on Wednesday with a 7:00 p.m. start at MCLA in North Adams, Mass.