WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit and junior guard Allister Williams (Bedford HS/Boston, Mass.) hit a pair of clutch three-pointers late to lift the Owls past Bridgewater State, 72-67   in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball game at the Woodward Center on Wednesday evening.

Bridgewater led 41-29 at the half on the strength of 13-points from Fawaz Mass (Taunton, Mass.).

Westfield took an early run at the Bears in the second half, scoring the first eight points of the second stanza to cut the lead to four, 41-37, just 2:48 into the period.

Bridgewater pushed the lead back up to 10, 58-48 on a three-pointer by Keyon Armstrong (Wakefield Memorial/Brockton, Mass.) with 8:03 left in the game.  A three-point play by the Owls' Peter Mafo (Lynn Classical/Lynn, Mass.), a layup from Shane Pasquantonio (Ashland, Mass.) and a three-pointer from Mafo quickly chopped the lead down to 58-56 with 5:53 left in regulation.

Williams 3-pointer with 2:56 left in regulation gave the Owls their first lead, 62-61 since the early stages of the first half, and then after a Greg Romanko (Mansfield, Mass.) bucket for the Bears, Williams answered by drilling another triple on the ensuing trip to put the Owls up 65-63.

Westfield finally took the lead for good on Pasquantonio's spinning layup with 1:36 to play, and held the Bears at bay down the stretch.

Mafo led Westfield with 17 points and dished out six assists.  Marcus Collins (Cambridge Rindge and Latin/Cambridge, Mass.) added 14 points and 12 rebounds, Pasquantonio netted 14 and Jesus Sanchez (Holderness/Springfield, Mass.) 12.

Westfield State is now 9-14, 4-6 in the MASCAC. The Owls will close out the regular-season slate on Saturday, hosting Worcester State at 1:00 p.m.  

For Bridgewater, Mass led the way with 18 points on 7-11 shooting from the floor, and Romanko added 11.

Bridgewater is now 13-11, 6-5 in the MASCAC. Bridgewater will close its regular-season schedule on Saturday as well, hosting Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in a 1:00 tip.