Western New England Cruises to 98-62 Senior Day Win over Curry

Pettway finishes with 23 points, seven assists & five rebounds

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (February 2, 2019) – The Western New England University men's basketball team cruised to a 98-62 senior day victory over Curry College on Saturday afternoon in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at the Alumni Healthful Living Center.

Before the game, Western New England honored senior captain Mikey Pettway (Bridgeport, Conn.) for his contributions to the men's basketball program over the past four years.

Top Performers
Pettway led the Golden Bears with a strong all-around performance, as he recorded 23 points, seven assists, five rebounds and two steals.

Junior guard Mike McGuire (Garden City, N.Y.) scored 15 points to go with six rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block, while sophomore forward Zachary Tavitian (Milford, Conn.) turned in a 14-point, seven-rebound, four-block effort.

Junior Tim Reilly (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) and freshman Kenny Flynn (Dudley, Mass.) rounded out Western New England's five double-figure scorers with 11 points each.

Curry junior Jared Thorpe-Johnson (Dorchester, Mass.) followed up his 59-point outburst in Wednesday night's loss at UNE with a team-high 29 points and six boards this afternoon.

Game Review
Curry raced out to a 7-0 lead with the help of five points from Thorpe-Johnson, but Western New England answered with a 10-2 run and pulled ahead for good on a Flynn layup just over five minutes into the contest.

A dunk by Tavitian midway through the half gave the Golden Bears their first double-digit lead (24-13), and another Tavitian slam with 8:03 on the clock made it a 15-point game (30-15).

Western New England held its largest lead of the half (46-24) after junior Nick DeGennaro (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) connected from beyond the arc with 1:42 remaining.

Curry junior Spencer Feng (Keene, N.H.) hit back-to-back triples to get the Colonels back to within 16 (46-30), but WNE freshman Antonio Brancato (Fairfield, Conn.) knocked down a trey of his own late in the half to give the Golden Bears a 19-point advantage (49-30) at the break.  

Western New England broke the game open with a 10-0 run to start the second half. Sophomore Alex Sikorski (Rocky Hill, Conn.) got it started with a layup, and Reilly followed with a triple before Pettway completed a three-point play. Tavitian capped the surge with a layup as the Golden Bears opened up a 59-30 cushion just 2:23 into the period.

Western New England cruised the rest of the way, with eight reserves seeing time in the second half as the Golden Bears posted their second largest margin of victory this season.  

Notes
• Western New England shot 52.2 percent (35-of-67) from the field, including 44.4 percent (12-of-27) from three-point distance. Curry posted a 37.9 percent (22-of-58) shooting clip overall and a 50 percent (10-of-20) mark from long range.
• The Golden Bears have now won 11 straight games over Curry since the 2013-14 campaign.
• Western New England turned the ball over just six times while forcing 17 Curry turnovers.

Up Next
Both teams will be back in action next Tuesday night, as Western New England (9-13, 6-7 CCC) travels to Salve Regina and Curry (1-20, 0-12 CCC) returns home to take on Gordon.