Late Run Falls Short, Owls Fall to MIT, 80-74

WESTFIELD, Mass.  -   Angie Choi (Cypress, Calif.)  scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead MIT to a 80-74 win over Westfield State in a non-conference women's basketball game at the Woodward Center on Monday night.

The Owls fell to the Engineers despite forcing 34 turnovers and out-scoring the Engineers 29-15 in the fourth quarter.

The loss brings the Owls to 4-6 while MIT is now 7-2.

MIT led 47-30 at the half. The Owls cut the lead to eight at one point in the second quarter, but MIT finished the half on a 9-0 run.

It was all Engineers for the first three quarters of play, as Westfield trailed 65-45 entering the fourth quarter.  The Owls went on a 19-5 run late, cutting the lead down to four on an Olivia Hadla (Westfield, Mass.) layup with 2:17 remaining in the fourth quarter.  The Engineers made 7 of 12 free throws in the closing two minutes to hold on for the win.

The Owls' strong defensive identity was present in the fourth quarter where they forced 11 turnovers, led by six steals in the game from Morgan Berthiaume (Webster, Mass.). Westfield got  nine fourth quarter points from Hadla and seven from Maddie Pond (Holyoke, Mass).

Jordan Grant (Gray, ME) was the Owls' leading scorer with 17 points. Pond finished with 15 points and Hadla 14 for the Owls. Octaviana Williams (Springfield, Mass.) led the Owls in rebounds with nine.

The Engineers had a strong shooting night, shooting 43.5% from three, including a 6-11 performance in the first half.  MIT was 18-32 (56 percent) from the floor in the first half.  MIT shot 30 free throws to the Owls 11 in the game.

Christina Antonakakis (Holmdel, NJ) ended the game with 17 points for the Engineers. Kamsi Nwogu (Algonquin, Ill.) finished with nine points and nine rebounds.

-- written by Jordan Aguiar, sports information intern