Comeback Try Falls Short, Owls Fall to Bridgewater, 105-94 in Semifinals

BRIDGEWATER, Mass.  –  Westfield State mounted a furious second quarter comeback, but couldn't get over the hump of a 25-point halftime deficit, as the third-seeded owls fell to #2 Bridgewater State, 105-94,  in the semifinals of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament semifinals at the Tinsley Center on Thursday evening.

Westfield's season comes to an end with a 17-10 overall record.  Bridgewater improves to 15-11 and advances to Saturday's conference championship game at #1 seed Framingham State.

Bridgewater's Kylie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass./North) led six Bears players in double figures with 29 points.  Bears' point guard Caroline Tripp (Plymouth, Mass./North) dished out a school record 18 assists and added 10 points.

Westfield was led by 27 points and six steals from Maddie Pond (Holyoke, Mass./Hampshire).  Olivia Hadla (Westfield, Mass.) added 15 and Octaviana Williams (Springfield, Mass/Minnechaug) 10 for the Owls. Morgan Berthiaume (Webster, Mass./Douglas) scored eight points and handed out six assists.

The Bears came out firing right from the tip off in front of a raucous, near capacity crowd, shooting 61 percent from the floor and a blistering 64 percent, 9-16 from behind the three point arc in the opening 20 minutes, building a 58-33 lead at the half.

Bridgewater started to edge away late in the first quarter, and Tripp hit a desperation, fall away three pointer at the first quarter buzzer, deep in left corner off errant pass to make the score 29-16.

Westfield got the lead back down to nine at 32-23 on a Hannah Sheldon (Taunton, Mass./Norton) three, but Grassi answered with a three-pointer from the top of the key on the next possession, sparking a 12-2 run that was capped by another triple from Sydney Bradbury (E. Bridgewater, Mass.) with 4:39 left in the half that forced an Owls timeout.

Three Bears scored in double figures in the opening 20 minutes, led by 16 from Grassi, 15 from Bradbury and 11 from Jessica D'Amours (Feeding Hills, Mass/Agawam).  Tripp handed out a dozen assists in the first half

Westfield started to chip away at the big lead in the second half.

Westfield got the lead under 20, 64-45, after a traditional three-point play from Jordan Grant (Gray, Maine) with six minutes to play in the third.

Back-to-back threes from Hadla and Pond and a putback from Sophia D'Angelis (Braintree, Mass.) trimmed the big lead back to 13 at 66-53 midway through the third quarter.

A three-pointer from Bridgewater's Sophia Gaucher (Lakeville, Mass./Appoquonet) broke the 8-0 run.

Westfield's Berthiaume drilled a 3-pointer from the right corner at the third quarter buzzer to pull the Bears lead back down to 15 points, 80-65 at the end of three quarters.

Back-to-back three pointers by Pond trimmed the lead to 82-71 with 8:29 left in regulation and forced a Bridgewater time out.  The Bears answered with a 6-0 run capped by a fast break layup from Grassi pushed the BSU lead back up to 17 points at 88-71.

Westfield dropped the lead back to 12  on fast break layup from Hadla , and the Owls followed up with a steal and a layup for Pond who was fouled and completed the three-point play with 4:39 left to get the lead all the way back down to nine points at 90-81.

Another steal by Grant and layup for pond dropped lead to just seven and forced another Bridgewater timeout with 4:07 left to play.

The two teams traded salvos, as a Tripp drive boosted lead back to 13 with 2:15 left, but another Pond 3 on on an inbounds play got it back to 10 with 1:55 to play

Sydney Bradbury's corner 3 with 1:35 left got the Bears' lead back to 13 at 99-86 and effectively zeroed out the Owls comeback chances.

The game is the sixth highest combined scoring game in Owls history, as the two teams tallied 199 points between them.

Westfield shot 22-41 (53.6 percent) in the second half and connected on 8 of 19 (42 percent) from long range in the second half.

Bridgewater finished the game having shot 57 percnet from the floor overall, and 57.9 perent from three point range, led by Bradbury, who was 6-11 from long range and finished with 21 points.   All five starters, and reserve Arielle Cleveland (14) finished in double figure scoring for the Bears. D'Amours added 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for the bears.   Bridgewater out-rebounded the Owls 46-30 and finished 22-29 at the foul line, compared to 11-15 for Westfield.

Westfield finishes its 14^th straight season with a record of .500 or better and 13+ wins.