X Marks The Spot! Lewis' 33 Points Leads Owls Over Bridgewater

WESTFIELD, Mass. –   Westfield State junior  guard Xavier Lewis (Long Island, NY / Half Hollow Hills East) scored a career high 33 points to power the Owls to a 102-71 blowout win over Bridgewater State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game at the Tinsley Center in Bridgewater, Mass. on Wednesday night.

Westfield improves 12-4 overall and 4-1 in the MASCAC, while Bridgewater is now 5-11 overall and 3-2 in the MASCAC and falls a game behind conference co-leaders Westfield State and Worcester State.

Lewis was on fire all night, shooting 13-19 from the floor, 3-4 from 3, and 4-5 at the line, and also grabbed eight rebounds and dished out four assists with five steals.   He has been on a scoring tear, netting more than 20 points in each of his last three games, boosting his scoring average from 10.8 to 14.3 points per game.  Lewis also on the verge of a 50-40-90 season scoring the ball – falling just short of the later with 88 percent at the foul line this season.

Lewis got scoring support from Kenney Rogers (Springield, Mass.) with 27 points while shooting 12-22 from the floor.  Jason James (Ansonia, Conn.) added 14, and Cam Hoekstra (Spencer, Mass.) added eight points and six rebounds off the bench.   Rogers 27 was the second-best game of his career, just one point shy of his career best.

Westfield took over the game midway through the first half.  Leading 18-14 with 12:25 left, the Owls went on a 9-0 spurt over the next two and a half minutes, capped by a conventional three-point play and a three-point bucket from Lewis to lead 27-14, then the Owls extended the run, boosting the lead to as many as 19 points at 43-24 on Lewis' putback of his own missed shot, and the Owls led by 18 at the half.  The duo of Lewis and Rogers did most of the damage with 17 and 15, respectively.

Josh Campell scored 14 in the opening half for the Bears and finished with a team high 20.  Senior guard Dante Kikuba handed out six assists for the Bears, including the 500^th of his career.

Westfield pushed the lead to 28 points in the second half, before the Bears made a mild run in the second half and trimmed it to 19, at 84-65 after a layup from Louis Jennings with 4;36 left in the game, but that was as close as Bridgewater would get.

The Owls cleared the bench late, and Jaylen Sullivan's (Bridgeport, Conn.) layup in the closing minute boosted the Owls over the 100-point mark for the first time this season.

With the win, Westfield State coach Rich Sutter tied former Bridgewater State head coach Joe Farroba as the winningest men's basketball coach in the MASCAC with 402 career wins.

Westfield will next play at Salem State on Saturday, with a 2:00 p.m. tip as part of a conference doubleheader, with the women's teams meeting at 12 noon.