Men's Hoop Holds of Mitchell, 86-76

WESTFIELD, Mass. –     Westfield State sophomore Kuany Teng (Manchester, N.H./Bradford Christian Acad.) scored 24 points to lead a balanced team effort as the Owls held off Mitchell College, 86-76 in a non-conference game at the Woodward Center on Saturday afternoon.

Teng shot 5-12 from behind the three-point arc, and dished out five assists with three steals.

Westfield improves to 7-2 on the season, while Mitchell is now 3-4.

The Owls jumped out to a 37-24 halftime lead behind 14 points from Teng, and Mitchell shot just 9-35 (25.7 pct) from the floor and 0-6 from three in the opening stanza.

The pace of the game accelerated in the second half, and the Mariners trimmed the Westfield lead down to just four points, at 61-57 after a Dontae Pollard (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) layup with 8:11 left in the game, and then to as few as three at 73-70 when Jalen Benson (New London, Conn.) hit 1 of 2 free throws with 3:24 to play.

But from there the Owls spurted away, using a 9-0 run fueled by a dunk and a putback from Brendon Hamilton (Worcester, Mass./Tech)to extend to 82-70 with 55 seconds left.

Hamilton, who ranks in the top ten in the country in rebounds per game, had another monster game with21 points, 19 rebounds and three blocked shots, while shooting 8-10 from the floor and 5-7 from the line.

Justin Rennis (Springfield, Mass./Central)added 16 points, Jeremy Remigio 11 (Santo Domingo D.R./Providence (RI) Central), and Joe Meade (Westfield, Mass.) came off the bench to provide 10 points and 10 rebounds, along with four assists and four blocked shots.

Alfonzo Stokes (Bloomfield, Conn.) finished with 24 points to lead the Mariners.  Hunter Baillargeon (Norwich, Conn. /St. Bernard)and Pollard each added 14, and Benson had a solid all-around game with 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists.