French Scores 36, Men’s Basketball Earns First Win, 78-70 Over Westfield State University

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Elms College junior guard Andre French (Torrington, Conn.) scored a game-high and collegiate career-best 36 points to help the Blazers outlast Westfield State University, 78-70 en route to their first victory of the season in Friday evening's Pioneer Valley Classic men's basketball game hosted by Springfield College at Blake Arena.

With the win, Elms improves to 1-3 overall and will face host Springfield College (5-1) in Pioneer Valley Classic action on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 5:00 p.m. Westfield State suffers its first setback of the 2011-12 season and moves to 5-1 on the season. The Owls will take on No. 3 Amherst College (5-0) on Saturday.

Clinging to a slim 70-65 lead with 59 seconds to play in the contest, Elms' junior guard Charles Bason (Riverdale, Md.) delivered a pair of free throws to extend the lead to seven at 72-65. Blazers' junior guard James Black (Baltimore, Md.) then hit the front end of two foul shots to increase the lead to 73-65 with 45 seconds left before Westfield State's Travis Nally (Melrose, Mass.) sank a trey to pull the Owls to within five at 73-68.

French then hit 3 of 4 free throws to up Elms' lead to 76-68 and Bason capped the win with two free throws of his own with 16 ticks on the clock to lift the Blazers to a 78-70 victory.

French scored 26 of his 36 points in the second half on 9 of 15 shooting from the floor including 5 of 6 from three-point range. Elms finished the contest with a 42.9 field goal percentage and were equally impressive from beyond the arc at a 42.3-percent clip that included five makes by French and a 4 for 7 effort from senior guard Daniel Gonzalez (East Windsor, Conn.).

Seven minutes into the opening period, Elms posted a 9-8 edge before Gonzalez swished three three-pointers on back-to-back-to-back possessions to give the Blazers an 18-8 lead in the span of just 1:08. French added a layup on Elms' ensuing possession to give the Blazers their largest lead of the first half (20-10) which it held until the 8:48 mark when Westfield State's Lee Vazquez (Attleboro, Mass.) drained a trey to spark a 16-6 run that knotted the game at 26-26 with 5:13 to play in the stanza.

The sides battled to 29-29 before Vazquez and Carlo Buono (Lynn, Mass.) converted layups to give the Owls a 33-29 advantage with 32 seconds left. Elms responded with a pair of French free throws to pull the Blazers to within two at 33-31 at intermission.

Vazquez hit a trey out of the gate to start the second period and French answered with a triple of his own and then netted a jumper to tie the game at 36-36.

With the score tied at 42-42, French hit two treys, while Gonzalez and junior forward David McDaniel (Plainfield, N.J.) each connected from long-range during a 22-10 run over a nine minute stretch that gave the Blazers a 12-point, 64-52 cushion with 6:20 remaining in the game.

Ryan White (Philadelphia, Pa.) made a pair of layups and Nally delivered a three-pointer to highlight a 7-0 run that pulled the Owls to within five with 4:36 to play.

Elms pushed its lead back to nine with 2:43 to play before the Owls mounted their final comeback effort.

Vazquez and Matt Devine (Pembroke, Mass.) each scored 20 points in the losing effort for Westfield State, while White added eight points and seven rebounds off the bench.

Devine hauled in a team-best eight boards and swatted seven shots in the loss.

McDaniel secured a game-best 11 rebounds and finished with 14 points, while Gonzalez totaled 16 points off the bench for the Blazers.