Women's Basketball Drops Regular Season Finale to Westfield, 71-61

By Jim Fenton

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University finished the regular season with a stunning setback on Wednesday night.

Instead of clinching at least a share of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference title, the Bears were overtaken down the stretch by Westfield State University.

The Owls went on a 17-0 run over nearly seven minutes in the fourth quarter to give BSU a costly 71-61 loss.

BSU (14-11 overall) ends the regular season at 10-2 in the MASCAC and is currently one-half game behind Framingham State University (10-1). The Rams can clinch the championship with a win in their regular season finale on Saturday afternoon against Fitchburg State University.

Both BSU and Framingham State will have opening-round byes in the MASCAC tournament and host semifinal-round games on Feb. 22.

The Bears had built a 14-point lead during the third quarter and held a 55-48 advantage with 8:31 remaining in the game following back-to-back baskets by Caroline Tripp (Plymouth, Mass.).

But third-place Westfield State (15-9, 8-3 MASCAC) held BSU scoreless until Sydney Bradbury (East Bridgewater, Mass.) made a 3-pointer with 51 seconds to go.

The Bears missed 10 straight shots and turned the ball over six times while the Owls were scoring those 17 unanswered points.

Bradbury led the BSU offense, scoring a career-high 28 points and hitting a career-best eight 3-pointers on 21 attempts in addition to grabbing six rebounds.

Bradbury, who reached the 1,000-point mark in her career last Saturday, now has 1,037 points as she moved past JoAnne Runge (1,023) and Kim Mooney (1,013) into 17th place on the school's all time list.

The eight 3-pointers were one shy of the school record held by three players. Bradbury now has 73 3-pointers this season, two shy of the school record set in the 2019-20 season by Hannah Dziadyk.

The rest of the team managed just 33 points (including 1-for-17 from three-point territory) with Kylie Grassi (Plymouth, Mass.) the only other player in double figures with 10 points plus six rebounds. Grassi increased her career scoring total to 1,163 points as she surpassed Shelly DePina (1,162) for sixth place on the Bears' all-time scoring lost.

Sophia Gaucher (Lakeville, Mass.) had nine points and five rebounds, Tripp contributed six points, eight rebounds and six assists and Jessica D'Amours (Feeding Hills, Mass.) grabbed eight rebounds.

The Bears shot 31% (21-68) for the game and turned the ball over 18 times (12 in the second half).

Westfield State had four players in double figures, including Octaviana Williams (Springfield, Mass.) with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Morgan Berthiaume (Webster, Mass.) with 14 points, Maddie Pond (Holyoke, Mass.) with 12 points and Jordan Grant (Gray, Maine) with 10 points and eight rebounds.

The Owls shot 32% (23-71) for the game with a 5-for-21 (24%) clip form three-point range.

Following Tripp's basket to make it 55-48, Pond hit two 3-pointers and Berthiaume and Hannah Sheldon (Taunton, Mass.) had layups to put Westfield State in front, 58-55, with 5:18 to go.

Williams made a free throw, Grant and Pond scored on layups and Berthiaume hit a pair of foul shots to complete the 17-0 run.

Bradbury's 3-pointer to break that spree made it 65-55 in the final minute.

The Bears were up, 33-21, at halftime, then increased the margin to 40-26 on a pair of Gaucher free throws with 7:34 left in the third quarter.

But Westfield State went on a 13-2 run and closed within 42-39. A 3-pointer by Gaucher put BSU up, 49-43, in the final minute, but Williams made a 3-pointer with 13 seconds to go and the Owls trailed, 49-46, going into the last 10 minutes.

After BSU held a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter, Bradbury opened the second quarter with two 3-pointers for a 23-16 advantage with 7:56 left in the half.

The Bears then went scoreless until Grassi hit a jumper with 5:05 to go, making it 25-19. Layups by D'Amours and Grassi extended the lead to 29-19, and Eryn Rice (Medway, Mass.) and Gaucher scored in the final 1:30 for a 33-21 lead at halftime.

Westfield State missed its first 10 shots of the second quarter before a basket by Williams with 1:46 left in the half. The Owls finished the quarter 1-for-14 and were 8-for-40 in the first half.

Bradbury made two 3-pointers and Gaucher hit a layup as BSU jumped to an 8-2 lead 4:07 into the game.

A layup by Arielle Cleveland (Groveland, Mass.) made it 10-4 before Westfield State closed to 10-9. Grassi hit two foul shots and a layup for a 14-9 lead and Bradbury (12 first-quarter points) converted a 3-pointer with 38 seconds remaining after the Owls had taken a lead.

The Bears were in front, 17-15, going into the second quarter as the Owls missed 19 of 26 shots to start the game.