Box Score
Graduate student guard and CCC Player-of-the-Year Ryan Birrell (Scituate, RI) led the Seahawks with 20 points while junior guard William Smiley (Saunderstown, RI) contributed a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Smiley scored the opening basket 47 seconds into the contest and the hosts were off and running in taking a commanding 40-25 lead at halftime.

But like they have done all year Western New England never gave up cutting the margin to 42-33 following a pair of free throws by senior guard Andre Shaw (New York, NY) with 13:43 to play and to eight at 50-42 when Shaw made a layup at the 7:23 mark.

A few minutes later Smiley connected on a three-pointer to make the score 55-43 with 4:07 remaining and the Golden Bears never got closer than nine the rest of the way.

SRU (18-8) also received nice performances from sophomore forwards Joshua Hohlfeder (Noank, CT) who had nine points and nine coming off the bench and Jeff Bielefeld (Littleton, MA) who pulled down 10 rebounds.

Junior guard Damon Alston (New Britain, CT) led Western New England with 14 points after making 6-of-12 shots from the field. He also had seven rebounds. Shaw finished with 12 points in his final game for the Golden Bears. Sophomore forwards Daniel Minto (West Hempstead, NY) and Dennis Rinaldi (Harrison, NY) contributed 12 and 11 rebounds, respectively.

Both teams had an off-shooting night with Western New England making only 29.3% of its field-goal attempts to 30.8% for Salve Regina.

The Seahawks, who will host Nichols in a conference semifinal contest on Thursday, did have a 51-40 advantage off the boards.

Western New England ends its campaign with a 9-17 record, which was a five-win improvement from a year ago.

Contact: Ken Cerino, Western New England athletic communications director (413) 782-1227
kcerino@wne.edu