Box Score Westfield, MA - The Utica College men's basketball team notched a win in its season-opening matchup against Westfield State by a score of 73-66 Friday night. This was the first game of the Westfield State Tournament, and the Pioneers will look to take home the championship tomorrow evening.
This contest was neck-and-neck for the first 10 minutes, but the Pioneers went on an 8-0 run to take a 25-16 lead with 7:50 left to play in the half. UC would build on this lead for the remainder of the first half, heading into the locker room with a comfortable 42-28 lead.
Senior forward Hunter Remley (Cranford, NJ/Cranford) led the charge offensively, netting 16 first-half points on four 3-pointers.
The second half completely flipped the script, as it was as back and forth has it could get. Westfield State drew within one at the 8:06 mark, but the Pioneers responded to every Owls run and never gave up the lead for the duration.
Remley posted a team-high 21 points, shooting 5-of-9 from behind the arc. Freshman forward Thomas Morreale (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) had a very impressive debut to his collegiate campaign, finishing with 12 points while going 3 of 4 from 3-point land. Freshman guard Brett Talbert (Deer Park, NY/Knox School) matched Morreale with 12 points as well in his first collegiate game.Talbert did the majority of his work from the free throw line, as he finished the night shooting 7 of 8 from the charity stripe.
The only other player to finish scoring in double digits for UC was sophomore guard Darius Hopkins (Tampa, FL/Seffner Christian), who tabbed a 10-point, six-rebound stat line. Senior forward Justin Strielkauskas (Waterbury, CT/Holy Cross) finished right behind Hopkins with nine points while adding eight rebounds in the process.
Junior center Kimedrick Murphy (Hudson, NY/Hudson) proved to be a force underneath the basket, notching game-highs in both rebounds (13) and blocks (5).
The Pioneers advance to 1-0 on the year with this win, and they will play for the tournament championship tomorrow evening against the winner of Rutgers-Newark and RPI.
