Men’s College Basketball

Westfield State 69 – MCLA 64

NORTH ADAMS - Senior forward Vaso Jaukovic and freshman reserve forward Tony Collier each scored 18 points to lead Westfield State to a 69-64 victory over MCLA on Jan. 29.

The Owls improved to 8-8 overall and 4-2 in the Mass. State Conference. They have a key conference game at home on Tuesday when they host Bridgewater State at 8:00 p.m.

Westfield withstood a 3-point barrage by MCLA (6-10, 0-6) to pull out the road victory. More than half of the Blazer’s points were scored from beyond the arc, as they made 11 of 26 trey attempts. Meanwhile, they were 12-for-41 inside the arc.

The Owls led 32-27 at halftime, but the Blazers went on a 15-6 spurt at the outset of the second half for a 42-38 lead. Westfield put together an 11-0 run to take a 49-42 lead with 9:44 remaining. Collier, who hails from Colchester, Vt., came off the bench to score nine of the points during the key second-half run.

MCLA regrouped to tie the score at 55-55 with 6:12 remaining as the Blazers drained three treys and converted several offensive rebounds into easy buckets. But the Owls received clutch shooting down the stretch from Jaukovic, Collier, sophomore guard Gavin Illangakoon (13 points) and junior forward Mike Jurkowski (10 points).

With Westfield clinging to one-point leads, the 6-7 Jaukovic nailed consecutive jumpers from the deep baseline with 1:22 and 0:57 remaining. Collier sealed the victory by canning two free throws with seven seconds remaining.

Westfield again shot well from the field: 52 percent, including 61 percent in the second half. Collier was 7-for-8 from the field, including 2-for-3 from 3-point range.

Robert Mitchell led MCLA with 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.