Westfield State improved to 8-5 while Maine-Presque Isle dropped to 1-10. The Owls’ next game is Tuesday, Jan. 10, when they host Bridgewater State in their Mass. State Conference opener.
Christopher Newport captured the tournament title by edging Eastern Connecticut State, 62-57, in the championship game.
Cold shooting again plagued the Owls in the early going for the second straight game as they trailed Maine-Presque Isle 22-20 with 6:53 left in the first half. Westfield only led 36-31 at halftime and 41-37 with 17:00 remaining in the game when it began its incredible scoring surge.
The Owls went on an incredible 37-0 run over the next 10 minutes to take a 78-37 lead with seven minutes remaining. Maine Presque-Isle finally broke the amazing scoring run with a jumper from Matt Campbell to make it 78-39 with 3:23 remaining.
Westfield scored 41 of its points off turnovers as it forced 36 Maine miscues and recorded 20 steals. The Owls cruised to the victory despite canning only 4 of 23 three-point attempts.
Senior forward James Ogbunize led the Owls balanced attack with 16 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Mike Jurkowski finished with 13 points and Matt Lynch had 11. All-Tournament team selection Matt Badjo - a 6-5 freshman forward from Worcester (St. John's) scored 10 points.
All-Tournament Team Selections
Matt Badjo - Westfield State
Brett Miles - Maine-Presque Isle
Kevin Zaluki - Eastern Connecticut
Jonathon SImmons - Eastern Connecticut
Korey Lewis - Christopher Newport
Dont'a Selden - Christopher Newport - MVP