Owls Comeback Effort Falls Short at Bridgewater, 85-79

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Bridgewater State duo Kylie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass.) and Sydney Bradbury (East Bridgewater, Mass.) combined for 51 points as the Bears rallied from an early deficit, then held off Westfield State late in the game with an 85-79 win in a MASCAC contest from Bridgewater, Mass. on Saturday afternoon.

The Owls drop to 10-8 on the season and 3-2 in the conference. The Bears remain perfect in league play, improving to 6-0 in the MASCAC and 10-9 overall.

Westfield opened the contest by scoring the first 11 points in the game with Jess Gardner (Webster, Mass.) jumpstarting the scoring with a pair of layups, then Hannah Sheldon (Taunton, Mass.) connecting for the Owls first triple of the game to lead 11-0 with 6:20 to play in the quarter.

Jordyn Lummus (Pittsfield, Mass.) buried a three later in the frame, giving the Owls their largest lead of the game at 14 points, leading 16-2. The Owls managed to build the first-quarter lead in part to their defense which held the Bears to just nine points on two made field goals to go along with nine turnovers in the first quarter.

Bridgewater flipped the script in the second quarter, catching fire from the floor by shooting 65% in the frame (13-20 FG), led by 12 first-half points from Grassi as the Bears outscored the Owls by 14 points in the second to open up a seven-point lead at halftime.

Bradbury pushed the Bears lead into double figures to begin the second half, knocking home a pair of triples to give Bridgewater an 11-point lead with 7:46 left in the quarter. Grassi extended the Bears lead after a three-point conversion, kick starting an 11-0 scoring run which extended Bridgewater's lead to 19 points over the middle portion of the third.

The Bears vaulted the lead all the way up to 26 points in the beginning of the fourth quarter after a jumper from Grassi at the 8:53 mark before the Owls went on a sizeable run to get back into the game. The scoring burst lasted the majority of the quarter, ripping off a 28-6 run over a six-minute span while forcing 13 turnovers in the frame.

Maddie Pond (Holyoke, Mass.) and Morgan Berthiaume (Webster, Mass.) buried consecutive three-pointers to trim the deficit to 13 points with 5:05 remaining. After a Jordan Peebles (Middleboro, Mass.) layup, Grant connected on two layups over the course of 11 seconds, forcing Bridgewater to take a timeout with the score at 77-66.   

Octaviana Williams (Springfield, Mass.) shaved the Bears lead to single digits off a Hadla steal, then another Bears turnover led to a Hadla layup and made free throw, making it a six-point game with three minutes to play in regulation.

Later in the frame, the Owls defense continued to rack up extra offensive possessions as another Westfield steal translated to a Williams layup, putting the Owls behind by four points after trailing by as many as 26 earlier in the quarter.

With the Owls trailing by five points with less than a minute to play, Grassi banked in a three as the shot clock expired to push the Bears lead to eight points with 45 seconds left. Pond responded with a three, but efficient free throw shooting down the stretch for Bridgewater ultimately sealed the win, allowing them to survive the furious Owls comeback effort.

Grant led the Owls with 13 points and added seven rebounds. Williams and Pond each collected 12 points while Hadla chipped in 11 points and five steals. Hadla is now three points away from reaching 1,000-career points.

Grassi led all scorers with 29 points and recorded eight rebounds, six assists, and four steals. Bradbury followed with 22 points, hitting six threes, while Sophia Gaucher (Lakeville, Mass.) followed with 17 points.

Westfield State returns home to host Salem State for their next game on Wednesday at 5:30 P.M.