THREE-PEAT !!! Westfield State Wins MASCAC Title for Third Straight Year

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Top-seeded Westfield State University women's basketball completed the three-peat, defeating Framingham State 90-75 behind 15 points and seven rebounds from Tournament MVP Kierra McCarthy in the 2018 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball championship game at the Woodward Center on Saturday afternoon.

Westfield earns its fifth MASCAC tournament title (and third straight, defeating Framingham in all three title games from 2015-17) and the Owls will receive their sixth NCAA Tournament bid, and their third straight.

"It's unbelievable" said Westfield State head coach Andrea Bertini. "It's so hard to do, I don't even know how to put words around it. You have to work together, have the right kids, the right team mentality, all pull for each other and care about each other. No matter what's happening on the floor, whether it's good or bad, they're picking each other up and ready to go right back in and try to do better every possession."

"This is so awesome… it's just so special," said McCarthy. "We don't have just one go-to player. We did it together. They can't stop just one of us, they have to stop all of us."

Westfield State (19-7) receives the MASCAC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The pairings will be announced on Monday at 2:30 p.m. with a live selection show at NCAA.com.

"We can play on Mars . . . we don't care . . . send the game to Mars," said Bertini if she asked where the Owls drew in the NCAA tournament.

After a tight game for the first six and a half minutes, Framingham took a 15-14 lead. A layup from the Owls' Lucy Barrett, and back to back three-pointers from McCarthy and Barrett stretched the Westfield lead out to seven points

The Owls took a 47-39 lead into the locker room at halftime after an intense first half in front of a vocal, near-capacity crowd of 890.

McCarthy scored 11 of her 15 points, including three three-pointers to spark the Owls fast start.

"I actually wasn't expecting it at all," said McCarthy of the award.

"It (MVP) could have gone to a few different kids," said Owls head coach Andrea Bertini. "Kierra obviously started us off well today, Lucy had a tremendous game. Ali Hester's second half was ridiculous. Kierra specifically, I have never seen the kid have a bad day. She could go 0-10 or 10-10 and you couldn't tell the difference - she's still giving you the same level of effort every time."

Westfield began to stretch their lead late at the end of the third quarter when they went on a 16-6 run started by a three pointer from freshman Taina Slaughter (Springfield, Mass./Chicopee High) and was finished by a three pointer from freshman Melissa Gray (Peabody, Mass) to take a 70-52 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Owls bench went on to outscore Framingham's bench by a score of 54-1.

Westfield State junior Lucy Barrett (Williamstown, Mass) scored 15 points and added four steals. Junior Allison Hester (Sutton, Mass) contributed 10 points and Keri Paton (Russell, Mass, Westfield High) also ended up in double figures with 13 points and four rebounds. Melissa Gray scored eight points and grabbed nine rebounds to help push the Owls past the Rams.

"It's a good collective group," said Bertini. "They are great women, our family support is phenomenal top to bottom. They are so dedicated to being in shape and being fit, and it just makes a huge difference … you know that if you keep running long enough and hard enough you might be able to out-run the other team."

Westfield State, the highest scoring team in the country, launched 38 three pointers in the game, making 11. The Owls finished 34-83 from the floor for the game, and handed out 23 assists on 34 buckets, led by nine from senior Alyssa Darling, and six from sophomore guard Chelsea Moussette.

Westfield got strong play from its trio of seniors, as Paton's 13 points were one shy of a career high, and center Rebecca Sapouckey finished with six points, six rebounds and two blocks, while helping limit Framingham forward Tiphani Harris to eight points, after she had averaged 21 ppg. in the first two meetings against the Owls this season.

"You think about the sacrifices they have made," said Bertini. "Rebecca is in the best shape of her career and she understands the game so well and is a such a tremendous passer she makes our first group tick. Paton with her physicality and offensive rebounding and willingness to do anything you help our team win, And Alyssa Darling coming back from two consecutive knee surgeries . . . . it speaks to the character of these kids."

Framingham State University relied heavily on their starters who scored 74 of their 75 points led by sophomore Mary Kate O'Day's (Berlin, Mass./Tahanto Regional) 20 points. Senior Raegan Mulherin (Baldwinville, Mass./ Narragansett Regional) added 19 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Emily Velozo (Tewksbury, Mass) also contributed with 19 points and seven rebounds.

"They are so talented," said Bertini of Framingham. "Mulherin, Mary Kate and Harris … She had just torched us the last two times and we made some adjustments to our press in terms of clogging the paint so she didn't get those second and third opportunities."

Framingham ends their season with a 16-10 record.

Westfield State improves to 52-4 against the league over the last four seasons.