WESTFIELD, Mass. – Junior center Shane Pasquantonio (Ashland, Mass.) completed an old-fashioned three-point play with 6.9 seconds left to lift Westfield State to a thrilling 73-71 come-from-behind win over Elms College in a non-conference game at the Woodward Center on Wednesday night.

With the score tied at 70-all and less than a minute to play, Symon Smith (Oklahoma City, Okla.) drove the baseline for Elms and was fouled with 20 seconds left in the game.  Smith converted 1 of 2 free throws to give the Blazers a 71-70 lead. 

On the ensuing possession, Westfield State junior guard Phillip DiPhillipo (Mahar/Orange, Mass.) drove the lane and dished to Pasquantonio who crashed the lane from the right side, laying the ball of the glass and getting fouled.  He sank the free throw to give the Owls a 73-71 lead.

After an Elms' time out, Smith handed the ball off to Jerry Buchanon (Windsor, Conn.) at the top of the key.   Buchanon lofted a highly-contested three point attempt that sailed out of bounds and returned possession to the Owls with 2/10 of a second remaining.

Westfield (10-12) trailed the 44-41 at the half.

Elms opened the second half with seven straight points on a layup and three pointer by Buchanon and a huge alley-oop fast break dunk by Conny Ihearahu (Largo, Md.) off a feed from Buchanon to build a 10-point lead.

The Owls grinded away at the Blazers' lead, finally tying the game at 62-all on a DiPhilippo jumper.  Westfield built a lead as large as six points, 70-64 on a Pasquantonio tip in with 3:40 to play.

Westfield was led by 26 points from junior guard Jesus Sanchez (Holderness School/Springfield, Mass.) on 9-15 shooting from the floor. He grabbed five rebounds and handed out three assists.  Pasquantonio finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.  Jose Allen (Amherst/Amherst, Mass.) added 13 points, all of which came in the first half, making his first three three-point tries in the game.

Buchanon, the nation's ninth-leading scorer, averaging more than 25 points per game, led Elms with 20 points, but shot 8-25 from the floor and 3-11 from three point range while handing out a half-dozen assists. Smith finished with 14 points and Ihearahu scored 11 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Elms (11-10).