Pond Drains Seven Triples, Owls Win 69-59

Westfield State got a career best 21 points from Maddie Pond (Holyoke, Mass./Hampshire Reg.) as she drained seven three-pointers to lead Westfield State to a 69-59 win over Salem State in a MASCAC women's basketball game on Saturday at the O'Keefe Center in Salem, Mass.

Westfield improves to 13-9 overall and 6-3 in the MASCAC, and sit in a tie for second place in the conference standings.   Salem is now 9-13 and 4-5 in the MASCAC.

The Owls saw three players in double- figures on the afternoon with Pond leading the charge while shooting 7 of 12 from downtown, followed by Olivia Hadla (Westfield, Mass.) and Hannah Sheldon (Taunton, Mass.) who chipped in 13 and 10, respectively, in the victory.  Octaviana Williams (Springfield, Mass./Minnechaug) grabbed 13 rebounds, and Jess Gardner (Webster, Mass./Holy Name) added eight points and seven boards for the Owls.

The balanced scoring effort helped the Owls, who played without junior center Jordan Grant (15.9 ppg), who missed the game due to injury.

Two Vikings recorded double-doubles on the afternoon with Ernidia Goncalves (Everett, Mass.) notching 18 points and 12 rebounds and Abuk Teng (Manchester, N.H.) landing 19 points to go with 12 boards. Lamia Ashley (Norwalk, Conn.) added 10 points of her own in the effort.

Westfield opened the second quarter with 10 unanswered points that gave them the sizeable 17-point advantage (28-11) with 7:15 to play in the half. One minute later Nieves was able to stop the bleeding by landing a jumper for the Vikings.

With 2:50 to play in the half, a three from Hadla gave the Owls their largest lead of the game (20 points) before Goncalves converted an and-one to cut into the deficit and bring the score to 36-19. The Vikings used the final two minutes of the half to mount a comeback and cut their deficit to 13 (39-26) heading into the break.

Spearheaded by Goncalves, the Vikings opened the half on a 7-0 run to cut the Owl's lead to six and bring the score to 39-33 with 5:10 to play in the third. Shortly after, Westfield found their first bucket of the half which sparked them to a 5-0 to reclaim the 11-point edge (44-33). Westfield was able to hold onto the double-digit advantage to head into the final ten minutes of play ahead, 54- 41.

In similar fashion to the third quarter, the Vikings started the fourth with seven unanswered points to come within six points (54-48) of the visitors with 8:12 remaining.

Salem trimmed the Owls lead back down to five, 62-57 with three minutes left in the game, but Pond's seventh three of the game was a near dagger in boosting the lead back to eight.  Pond has been on a hot streak of late, averaging 14.3 ppg in her last four outings, and shot 47 percent (15-32) from behind the arc in that stretch.

Jordyn Lummus' runner in the lane with 1:12 left made it 67-59, and Jess Gardner added a late layup to seal the win.

Westfield will return home to face Worcester State at the Woodward Center in a game with key playoff-seeding implications on Wednesday with a 7:30 tip off.  The game will be part of a doubleheader with the Owls men's team, and Westfield State will be recognizing high-achieving student-athletes with the Athletic Director's 3.0 reception and a presentation at halftime of the men's game, which tips off at 5:30 p.m.