Mency Notches Career-High 26 Points, Owls Avenge Trailblazers 95-76

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Keith Mency (Edgewater, N.J.) and Kenney Rogers (Springfield, Mass.) both scored 26 points as Westfield State defeated MCLA 95-76 in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game from the Woodward Center on Saturday afternoon.

The Owls avenge their loss to the Trailblazers from earlier in the season and remain in first place in the MASCAC standings with an 8-2 league mark and 16-5 overall record. The Trailblazers drop to 3-7 in the conference and 6-13 overall.

Mency's 26 points served as a new career high for the junior guard who got the Owls out to a 17-point lead at halftime after pouring on 18 points in the first half. Rogers' 26 points was the tenth time this season the sophomore forward has registered 20 or more points in a game and now 912 career points in less than two full seasons.

Jason James (Ansonia, Conn.) scored 14 points and A.Z. Allah (Springfield, Mass.) was the fourth double figure scorer with 13 points. Joe Thomson (Sunderland, Mass.) led both sides with 14 rebounds and Cam Hoekstra (Spencer, Mass.) chipped in 11 boards and two blocks.

Craig Williams generated a team-leading 23 points for the Trailblazers followed by Kamau Franks with 14 points and seven rebounds. Colin Quinn finished with ten points as MCLA's third double-digit scorer.

Westfield overcame a hot shooting start from MCLA with Quinn knocking down two triples in the Trailblazers first three possessions to take an 8-4 lead just two minutes into the game.

Trailing 14-9, the Owls scored 13 unanswered points to take the lead. Mency scored a pull-up jumper, then Allah splashed a three to give Westfield the lead at 15-14. The run continued with a layup from Allah then another finish in the paint from Thomson. The scoring spurt was capped by a three-point play by Rogers, giving the Owls a 22-14 lead with 9:06 left in the first half.

Allah extended the lead into double digits, then later in the frame, the Owls turned to Mency who tallied the final 12 points of the half for Westfield. Mency's first triple of the series came with 55 seconds left to push the lead up to 14 points, then in the final seconds of the half he intercepted a pass at midcourt then turned and launched a half-court shot which banked home at the buzzer to catapult the lead to 17 points at 49-32 entering the break.

Mency set a new career high for points scored in the first half alone, scoring 18 points on an efficient 7-10 shooting from the field.

In the second half, MCLA attempted to mount a comeback, beginning the period with a 10-0 run with Kamau Franks recording eight of the ten points during that span, trimming the Owls lead to seven points.

Westfield responded emphatically after a layup from Rogers sparked a 13-0 run in the Owls favor, putting the game out of reach and lofting the lead up to 20 points at 62-42 with 12:36 left in the game. MCLA would get no closer than 16 points for the remainder of the game as the Owls led by as many as 26 points over the back stretch of the second half.

Defensively, the Owls did a better job limiting the Trailblazers makes from beyond the arc, holding them to just 6-28 shooting from deep compared to the 14 triples in the first meeting. Westfield shot 47.1 percent from the field and made 25 of 33 shots at the free throw line.

The Owls held a 45-37 edge on the glass and were a plus-12 in points in the paint.

Westfield State will be back on the road for their next game as the Owls travel to Anna Maria College for the final regular season road game of the year on Wednesday at 7:00 P.M. MCLA plays their next game at home against Bridgewater State on Wednesday at 7:00 P.M.