Men’s College Basketball

Saturday, Feb. 12, 2005

Westfield State 69 – Fitchburg State 66

FITCHBURG – Westfield State rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to edge Fitchburg State, 69-66, on Feb. 12.

The Owls improved to 11-10 overall and 6-4 in the Mass. State Conference with the comeback victory. Fitchburg fell to 5-17 and 2-7.

The Owls again struggled on the road, and took their first lead, 28-27, on a lay-in by James Ogbunize (Springfield) with 3:37 remaining in the first half. But Fitchburg outscored Westfield, 8-0, the remainder of the half to take a 35-28 advantage at the intermission.

Westfield made another run early in the second half, closing to within two points, 39-37, on a 3-point basket by freshman guard Tony Collie (Colchester, VT). But powered by the inside play of senior forward Rashad Cope (Roxbury), Fitchburg took its biggest lead, 53-41, on a Cope layup with 10:28 remaining.

The Falcons held a 59-50 lead with 6:47 remaining when the Owls exploded for a 16-0 scoring spree over the next three and a half minutes to take a 66-59 lead.

Sophomore guard Gavin Illangakoon’s (Ellington, CT) 3-point bucket tied the score at 59-all with 4:30 remaining. A Collier layup gave Westfield a 61-59 lead, which was followed by another 3-pointer by Illangakoon and a layup by sophomore guard Ricky Ogboin (Brighton).

Fitchburg then went on a 7-0 run to tie the score, capped by a lay-in by Cope with 43 seconds remaining.

Westfield’s game-winning shot was a tip-in by Ogboin with 20 seconds remaining. Freshman guard Steve Martins (Westfield), who missed the driving layup that Ogboin tipped in, made 1 of 2 free throws with seven seconds remaining. Fitchburg’s Jim Prignano’s 3-point attempt near the top of the key at the buzzer was just off the mark and Westfield escaped with its third road victory of the season.

Cope poured in 27 points, one shy of his career high; however, he was held to just two points in the final 7:49. Cope was 13 for 18 from the field and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

Also scoring in double figures for the Falcons were Dan Largesse (Sutton) with 11 and freshman forward Brian Torres (North Dighton) with 10.

Collier led Westfield’s balanced scoring with 14 points, followed by Ogbunize (13), Ogboin (12) and Vaso Jaukovic (11). Jaukovic, a graduate student, now has 985 career points.

Jaukovic and Ogboin both grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. The Owls shot 50 percent from the field (26-for-52) but committed 21 turnovers and were 14-for-25 from the foul line.