Dominant Second Half Powers Western New England to 104-76 Triumph over Endicott

Golden Bears improve to 8-7 in CCC play heading into Saturday's regular season finale

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (February 13, 2019) – The Western New England University men's basketball team shot 61.8 percent from the field in the second half and outscored Endicott College 53-31 over the final 20 minutes to claim a 104-76 victory over the Gulls on Wednesday night in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at the Alumni Healthful Living Center.

Top Performers
Senior guard Mikey Pettway (Bridgeport, Conn.) fueled the Golden Bears with an impressive all-around performance, as he finished with game-highs in points (29), rebounds (9), assists (7) and steals (4) without committing a turnover.

Junior Mike McGuire (Garden City, N.Y.) scored 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-6 from three-point range, to go with five rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Junior Tim Reilly (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), sophomore Alex Sikorski (Rocky Hill, Conn.) and freshman Antonio Brancato (Fairfield, Conn.) also reached double figures with 14, 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Endicott was led by junior guard Keith Brown (Pelham, N.H.), who scored a team-high 23 points. Sophomore Jordan Pettway (Bridgeport, Conn.) produced 21 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Gulls.

Game Review
Western New England, which trailed 8-4 early in the contest, took its first lead (10-8) when McGuire connected from beyond the arc at the 15:09 mark.

The Golden Bears went up three (24-21) when Reilly completed the first of his two four-point plays with 11:18 left in the half, before a Sikorski dunk three minutes later made it a seven-point game (33-26).

Western New England led by as much as 12 in the first half, but the Gulls closed the gap to six (51-45) at the break.

Endicott started the second half with a three-point play from Brown to pull to within three, but the Golden Bears responded with an 11-0 run to stretch their advantage to 14 (62-48). Pettway fueled the surge with six points, while Tavitian capped it with a triple at the 17:48 mark.

Western New England used an 8-0 spurt a few minutes later, led by six more points from Pettway, to extend its lead to 19 with 12:36 left in the contest.

The Golden Bears continued to roll the rest of the way, cruising to a 28-point triumph. 

Notes
• Western New England shot 57.6% from the field, marking the third straight game and sixth time in the last seven contests that the Golden Bears have topped 50% shooting.
• Western New England's win snaps a four-game losing streak to the Endicott.  
• The Golden Bears limited the Gulls to 35.3% shooting in the second half

Up Next
The regular season comes to a close on Saturday, as Western New England (11-13, 8-7 CCC) travels to Roger Williams and Endicott (16-8, 9-6 CCC) hosts Gordon. The Golden Bears still have an opportunity to secure a home game in the first round of the CCC playoffs with a win over the Hawks on Saturday combined with an Endicott loss to Gordon.