Men's Hoop Looks for Ninth Straight on Saturday

WESTFIELD, Mass. — Westfield men's hoops is back in action at the Woodward Center to take on Bridgewater State on Saturday at 12 noon at the Woodward Center.

Last year these two teams met three times, with two going the way of the Bears including a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament semifinal win over Westfield.

This year the Owls come into this one red hot as they have won their last eight straight and 11 of their last 12 games. Westfield is also atop the conference standing with a 4-0 conference record, while Bridgewater hasn't been as lucky this year. The Bears, a MASCAC finalist a year ago and picked to win the league in the preseason coaches' poll, come into this one 1-4 in the MASCAC looking to return to last year's form.

Westfield State comes into this one 11th in the nation as a scoring offense in Division III, averaging 89.6 points per game. One way the Owls have done this has been to get to the free throw stripe consistently, as they have attempted the fifth-most foul shots in the country and made the seventh-most. On the defensive side of the ball, the Owls are third in turnover margin in Division III, sixth in steals per-game, and 12th in assist to turnover ratio.  The Owls were picked to finish second in the conference in the preseason coaches' poll, but have defied expectations to this point

Westfield first-year forward Kenneth Rogers, Jr. (Springfield, Mass.) leads the conference in points per game (18.9), is second in rebounds per game (9.1), and top ten in field goal percentage (45.2 percent). Senior forward Timmy Jacobus (Willemstad, Curacao) is second in the MASCAC for three-point percentage with a 43.5 percentage from beyond the arc. In the last week Jacobus has been almost lights out - in two games he has 13 combined three's, including seven in a 21-point performance against Worcester State at home last week.

Another leading scorer for the Owls is Lid Moreland (Bridgeport, Conn.). The senior guard is fourth in the conference for points per game with an average 16.3. This average has been boosted since the turn of the new year as Moreland hasn't had a game under 15 points and has had two games of 20+ points since then. Xavier Lewis (Long Island, N.Y.) is the leading shot creator for the Owls as he dishes out 3.7 assists per game, which is the fifth-highest average in the conference.  Angel Price-Espada (Cambridge, Mass.) leads all the MASCAC in steals per game with 2.9, while also averaging 15.8 points per game on 43.8 percent shooting from the floor as a sophomore.

For Bridgewater, Josh Campbell (Plymouth, Mass.) spearheads the scoring movement for the Bears as he averages 16.9 points per game, Louis Jennings (Walpole, Mass.) rips down the most boards for Bridgewater with an average of 6.2 a game, good for seventh in the MASCAC, and adds 14.1 points per game. Point guard Dante Kikuba (Framingham, Mass.) averages six assists per game, which leads the conference, and also nets 14.1 points per game.

The game is the first of a doubleheader, with the Owl women hosting the Bears at 2:00 p.m.

Follow along at WestfieldStateOwls.com for live scoring and live streams of the games.