ROCHESTER, N.Y. –    Zach Stenglein and Kevin Underwood scored 21 points each to lead Nazareth College to a hard-fought 78-71 win over Westfield State in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship at the Kidera Gymnasium on Friday afternoon.

Nazareth improves to 24-4, while Westfield's season comes to an end at 22-5.

Nazareth led 36-31 at the half, but got back-to-back three pointers to start the second half to lead 42-33. Westfield had held Stephen Gabel, the Flyers leading scorer at 17.8 points per game, to just six in the first half, but Gabel and Logan Blankenberg sandwiched a pair of threes around a Justin Rennis drive to match their biggest lead to that point in the game.

The game was physical for both teams, including a bizarre sequence that saw three straight fouls on the Owls Gerry McManus with 16 minutes left, before McManus was fouled by Zach on the ensuing inbounds, for four fouls in less than two seconds as the pair battled for position on an inbounds play.

Back-to-back buckets by 6-8 center Jonathan Park gave Naz a 48-33 lead with 14:50 left in the game and forced Owls head coach Rich Sutter to use a time out.

Park picked up his third foul and went to the bench with 14:28 left as the Owls' Joe Meade completed a three-point play that cut the lead to 48-36. 

Westfield chipped away with Park on the bench, as Kuany Teng drilled a 3 on Hamilton kickout to make it 52-41, then, Hamilton scored layup off a dish from Meesha Ohradka got the lead back to single digits at 52-43 and induced a time out from Nazareth head coach Kevin Broderick.

A fast beak three from the Owls' Justin Thompson trimmed the lead to 52-46 with 10:38 left

Park picked up his fourth on a charge with 9:00 left, and the Owls trimmed the lead again, as Justin Rennisbulled to the hoop to make it 58-55, and Ham trailes on the break and banked in jumper to keep the lead at three, 60-57.

An Underwood drive-and-1 with 3:55 left boosted the Flyers lead to 67-60. With 3:16 left in the game, the Owls forced Naz into bad three-pointer with the shot clock winding down, but the rebound squirted out of bounds, and then Underwood scored on drive make it 69-61 with three minutes to play.

Westfield got close again as Rennis drove lane for a jumper to make it 73-67 with 1:11 left, and Kumar Brown's putback slam of a Hamilton trimmed the lead to 73-69, but Brown couldn't complete the three-point play attempt with 37.4 left, and Nazareth garnered the rebound leaving the Owls to foul down the stretch.

Thompson led Westfield with 15 points on 4-9 shooting from long rangek and Hamilton added 11 and eight rebounds.  Teng finished with nine points, and Ohradka gave the Owls a big lift in the second half with eight points. Rennis finished his Owls career with eight points and five rebounds.

Park finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Zach Stenglein finished with 11 rebounds and was 11-13 at the foul line.

Nazareth finished 26-62 from the floor while the Owls were 26-61 (42.6 percent).   The Golden Flyers finished 22-27 from the foul line to Westfield's 14-24 (58.3 pct.).

Nazareth led the Owls 36-31 at the half in a tightly contested first half.   JT Thompson was the most consistent performer for the Owls, shooting 3-7 from the floor and 3-4 at the line for 12 first half points.  Zack Steinglen led Nazareth with 11 points, as the junior guard was able to consistently penetrate into the lane.

Westfield attempted to set the tone early, forcing turnovers on two of first three Nazareth possessions, and took the lid off the game when Justin Rennisbanked in a jumper at the 18:48  mark.

Nazareth took 11-6 lead after a steal and fast break dunk by 6-8 center Jonathan Park to excite the white-out student crowd at Nazareth.

Owls were just 3-13 from floor until a Thompson three made it 15-12 with 11:22 left in first half, and he added a shot-clock buzzer beater two minutes later.

Naz's Josh Stenglein drilled a deep bomb of a three pointer to lead 20-15

Zach Stenglien's drive made it 30-23 with 4:12 left, then a breakaway two-handed dunk from Park off steal made it 32-23, for the largest Golden Flyer lead of the half.   Westfield struggled at times with possession of the ball, committing 10 turnovers to Naz's six in the opening frame.

Westfield's Gerry McManus answered with bucket at the other end, then the Owls foiled a Zach Stenglein drive, and Thompson nailed his third three of the half to trim the lead to 34-31 with seconds left in the first half. A touch foul at midcourt gave the Flyers Kevin Underwood a pair of  1-and-1 free throw with five seconds left in half to take 36-31 lead into the locker room.

Naareth advances to play UMass-Dartmouth (25-4), an 86-83 winner over Emerson College (18-8) in the other first round game here today, in Saturday's second round game with a 6:05 tip off.

Release courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information