Men’s College Basketball

Feb. 5, 2005

Worcester State 70 – Westfield State 61

WORCESTER – Junior guard Tyson Drayton scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Worcester State to a 70-61 conference victory over Westfield State on Feb. 5.

The Lancers improved to 11-8 overall and 4-4 in the conference. Westfield is 9-9 and 5-3.

Worcester led 33-28 at halftime and held single-digit leads for the entire second half. The closest the Owls drew was within a point, 60-59, when senior forward Vaso Jaukovic nailed a 3-point basket from the top of the key with 2:54 remaining.

But the Owls were unable to come up with the big stop and make their shots as they were outscored 10-2 in the final two and a half minutes.

Worcester State quickly regained its four-point edge, 63-59, when senior forward Jermaine Cannon (Dorchester) converted an old fashioned 3-point play with 2:28 remaining.

Junior forward Ralph Frazier (Carver) was Worcester’s only other player in twin digits with 13 points. Senior forward Tom Sullivan scored eight point and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

Freshman guard Tony Collier (Colchester, VT) led Westfield with 18 points. Junior forward Mike Jurkowski (Belchertown) posted a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, but he struggled around the key against the tall Worcester frontcourt, canning only 4 of 16 field goal attempts. Junior reserve forward James Ogbunize tallied 10 points.

Both teams shot 36 percent from the field. Worcester held a slight edge in 3-point shooting (4 of 8) and free throw shooting (20 of 24) over Westfield, which made 3 of 14 treys and 14 of 20 free throws.