WESTFIELD, Mass. - Seniors Grant Cooper and Andre King each scored 19 points for Westfield State as the Owls mauled Bridgewater State, 90-57, in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game at the Woodward Center on Saturday afternoon.
Westfield ran out to an early 18-6 lead, capping the spurt with a Dan Tessier steal and a Dan Johnson layup at the 14:46 mark of the first half. Westfield pushed the lead to 15 points, 23-8 on a King three pointer with 12:30 to play in the half.
Bridgewater attempted to rally, cutting the lead down to 11, 39-28 on a Rocky DeAndrade three pointer with 3:00 to play in the half, but Westfield pushed its lead up to 15, 45-30, at the half after Robbie Jones hit a three-pointer for the owls with 21 seconds left in the half.
Westfield forced 12 Bridgewater turnovers in the first half, and held the bears to just 10-29 shooting from the floor and just 1-8 from three point range in the half.
In the second half, Westfield shut the door early on Bridgewater's comeback hopes, forcing three turnovers on the Bears' first seven possessions, and completing an 11-5 run in the first 2:47 of the second half to push the lead up to 21, at 56-35 on Jones' layup off of a Cooper steal.
Bridgewater would never get closer than 19 points from that point on.
Westfield had five players finish in double figures in scoring. Jones added 15 points and four steals, Jesus Sanchez had 11 points and Jose Allen scored all 10 of his points off the bench in the first half.
Cooper's 19 boost his career scoring total to 1195 points, moving him into 13th place on the Owls all time list (passing Tim Parker '73, 1178).
Michael Lofton was the only player to score double figures for Bridgewater, finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds. Kyle Gibson added nine for the Bears.
Bridgewater shot just 33 percent for the game (17-51) from the floor. Westfield came up with 18 steals and forced 24 Bears turnovers.
Westfield improves to 8-5, 2-0 in the MASCAC with the win, while Bridgewater drops to 7-6, 1-1 in the MASCAC.
Westfield next hosts Salem State next Saturday at 1:00 p.m.. Bridgewater will host Framingham State on Tuesday evening.