Owls Hold Off Golden Bears, 75-67

WESTFIELD, Mass. –    Westfield State used a balanced scoring attack, led by 18 points from Jeremy Remigio (Santo Domingo, D.R. / Providence (RI) Central HS) as the Owls topped local rival Western New England University, 75-67 in a non-conference men's basketball game at the Woodward Center on Tuesday night.

Westfield improves to 5-0 on the season, while Western New England is now 1-2.

The Owls got out to a 39-29 halftime lead, holding the Golden Bears to just 34 percent (11-32) shooting from the floor in the half.

Westfield held the Bears at arms' length throughout the second half.  WNE cut the lead to 1, 52-51 on a Tim Restall (Tolland, Conn.) layup with 10:01 left in the game, then again at 55-54 when Brian Geitner (Tolland, Conn.) hit a three pointer. 

Westfield's Gerry McManus (Hudson, Mass./Assabet Valley) hit a floater in the lane to boost the lead back to three, then Justin Rennis (Springfield , Mass./Sabis) scored on a drive to push the Owls lead to 59-54 with 6:18 to play.

Geitner cut the lead back down to three with another trifecta at 63-60 with 3:48 left, but Remigio answered with a spinning drive to the hoop to push the lead back to five, and the Bears would get no closer.

Rennis and JT Thompson (Columbia, SC/Dutch Fork)each added 12 points  for Westfield, and Brendon Hamilton (Worcester, Mass./Tech) finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.  Hamilton has had double-figures in rebounds each game this season.

Remigio was 7-11 from the floor, and 3-4 at the fould line, and handed out five assists.

WNE was led by 20 points from Geitner, 16 from Alex Sikorski (Rocky Hill, Conn.) , and 12 from Restall.

Westfield State will be back in action on Thursday evening, hosting UMass-Dartmouth.