STANDISH, Maine – Saint Joseph's College (6-2) toppled University of Maine-Fort Kent (3-5), 77-47, in a non-conference women's basketball contest at the Harold Alfond Center on Sunday afternoon. Junior center Morgan Cahill (Yarmouth, Maine) netted a game-high 18 points with four rebounds and four blocked shots in the victory.
Saint Joseph's, which featured 12 different scorers in the triumph, was sluggish in the early going and did not grab a lead until the 3:52 mark of the first half when a Sarah Assante (Standish, Maine) layup lifted the hosts to a 6-5 lead.
As it played out, the Assante hoop kicked off a game-changing scoring surge, as freshman forward Brianna Holdren (Portland, Maine) made a layup just over six minutes later, capping an 18-4 run which ended with the Monks holding a 22-9 advantage with 9:52 left in the first frame.
The visiting Bengals netted four quick points, as senior center Ericka Saucier (Warren, Maine) made a pair of freebies and junior guard Necole White (Vallejo, Calif.) converted a layup in a matter of 25 seconds to cut the visitors' deficit down to nine (22-13) with 9:13 before the break. For Fort Kent, the single-digit scoring margin would be the last of the afternoon, as the Monks netted five unanswered points to gain a 27-13 lead with 5:53 left in the half and headed into intermission with a 39-21 cushion on the heals of a 6-0 run.
St. Joe's put the game completely out of reach by starting the second stanza with 12 straight points, as a Cahill jumper lifted the Royal Blue to a 51-21 lead with 15:51 remaining. The Monks proceeded to hold at least a 22-point lead for the duration and managed to claim a game-high 32-point (73-41) advantage when freshman forward Regan McFerran (Albany, N.Y.) hit a layup off a Maloney assist with 2:16 left.
Saint Joseph's shot 41.5% (27-65) overall, 20% (3-15) from three-point distance, and 60.6% (20-33) from the FT line in the victory. Fort Kent shot 28.8% (17-59) from the field, 25% (2-8) from downtown, and 64.7% (11-17) from the stripe on the afternoon.
For the Monks, Maloney scored a career-high 10 points, Assante tallied nine points, five boards, four assists and three steals, and Holdren, McFerran and Emily Quirion (Augusta, Maine) recorded seven points apiece in the triumph. McFerran also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds in just 15 minutes off the bench.
For the Bengals, junior forward Bobbi Myles (Long Beach, Calif.) scored 17 with six rebounds while White, Kayla Richards (Presque Isle, Maine), Samantha Carapellucci (Fort Kent, Maine), Sabrina Head (Fremont, Calif.) scored five points apiece in a losing effort.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 17-3 in the history of the series with Maine-Fort Kent, a team the Monks defeated by a 95-54 margin at the Alfond Center last winter.
Saint Joseph's is off until the end of the month when the team travels to sunny California to face a pair of west coast programs. The Monks play at Pomona-Pitzer in a 2:00 PM tip-off on December 30th and take on Occidental College the following day at 1:00 PM. Maine-Fort Kent faces USCAA foe Fisher College in Boston at 1:00 PM this coming Saturday.
#GOMONKS
Follow Saint Joseph's Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram!
Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
