Owls Steal 77-76 Victory Over Vikings

SALEM, Mass. – This afternoon, Salem State men's basketball hosted the Owls of Westfield State University for a MASCAC bout. After a second half that was highlighted by stalemates and lead changes, the Owls stole the 77-76 victory  after the Viking's last second heave fell short, dropping Salem to 3-6 in MASCAC play.

Jaden Castillo (Lawrence, Mass.) led the Vikings with 19 points, five steals, and three helpers while Chris MacDonald (Wakefield, Mass.) and Conner Byrne (Melrose, Mass.) netted 18 and 15 points, respectively, on the afternoon.

For the Owls, Brendon Hamilton (Worcester, Mass.) led all scorers with 23 points while adding grabbing boards. Teammate, Brendan Keaveny (Quincy, Mass.) went 5-8 from behind the arc to pace him to 16 points off the bench in the win.

How it Happened:

• After trading baskets in the opening six minutes, the Owls were finally able to find a slight edge after a throwdown followed by a triple put them ahead of the Vikings by a tally of eight (16-8).
• With eight minutes to play in the first, MacDonald found the bottom of the net to bring his team within six, before an 8-1 run by the Owls gave them their first double-digit lead of the game (32-19). They would hold onto a 10-point advantage with 1:50 to play but a 6-0 run by the Vikings to close out the half made it a four-point game (37-33) going into the break.
• Four minutes into the second half, the Vikings found their first advantage since the opening play of the game after an easy two from Javier Osorio (Pittsfield, Mass.) brought the score to 43-42. The Owls would regain the lead shortly after and lead by as many as five before a J. Byrne throw down got the crowd on their feet and sparked his squad to a 7-0 run, giving them the 51-49 tilt with 12:36 remaining in the game.
• Salem found themselves with the slight edge over the next eight minutes before a three-pointer from the Owls would bring the game to 65-all with 3:06 to play. The Vikings found themselves back on top with 2:22 to play after J.Byrne went 1-2 from the charity stripe, bringing the game to 68-67 in the home team's favor. The Owls answered quickly with a three of their own to give them a 2-point edge before a MacDonald would tie the game at 70 apiece with 90 ticks remaining on the clock.
• On the other end, Keaveny pulled out the heroics for his team to hit his fifth three of the game and put his team on top by three points (73-70), but a sloppy pass on his part allowed Osorio to steal the ball and find MacDonald for the easy two, giving the Vikings the one-point advantage (74-73).
• The game was far from over, as Gerry McManus (Hudson, Mass.) answered on the other end with a triple to reclaim the lead for the Owls (76-74), giving the Vikings the ball with 12.4 seconds to play.
• To everyone's surprise, a quick Owl's foul sent Osorio to the free throw line where he went 2-2 to tie the game at 76 with 11.1 seconds remaining. After getting one-stop on the attacking Westfield State, an offensive rebound for the Owls resulted in a Viking foul to send Kumar Brown (Enfield, Conn.) to the line, where he went 1-2, to put his team up one point. With 1.5 seconds to play, the Vikings last heave fell short, allowing the Owls to steal the 77-76 victory from the Vikings.