NEW LONDON, N.H. - The Colby-Sawyer women's basketball team dropped its Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opener to Saint Joseph's College of Maine, 46-43, Wednesday evening at the Hogan Sports Center.
Saint Joseph's improves to 2-0 in the GNAC and 9-6 overall. The Monks will host Johnson & Wales on Saturday at 1 p.m. Colby-Sawyer drops to 10-4 overall and 0-1 in the conference. The Chargers will have another tough test on Saturday with a 1 p.m. contest at Albertus Magnus.
The Monks received a game-high 18 points from sophomore Alyson Fillion (Bedford, N.H.). She added a team best seven rebounds. Junior Cassandra Stapelfeld (Brookline, N.H.) added 14 points to account for 32 of the team's 46 points.
Senior Tianna Sugars (Oxford, Maine) notched her 10th double-double of the season with 13 points and a game best 15 boards. Senior Lexie Hamilton (Sunapee, N.H.) finished with 14 points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals and a pair of blocks.
Colby-Sawyer began the contest with a couple of layups. The Monks rallied with an 11-0 run, including eight-straight points by Fillion, to take a 13-4 lead with 3:27 left on the clock. Then it was the Chargers' turn to go on a run. The home team put together a rally of their own to finish the frame trailing just by one, 14-13. First-year Noelle Barrett (South Berwick, Maine) made both of her shots in the quarter for the Chargers. Fillion ended the first 10 minutes with eight points.
Saint Joseph's held the lead throughout the second, which got as high as eight points, and led 27-21 after 20 minutes. The Monks were held to three made field goals, but two of them were from deep. The visitors also added five free throws to win the frame 13-8. Colby-Sawyer made four two-point buckets in the quarter.
The Chargers turned things around in the third quarter to take a 38-37 lead after three. The team shot 46.2% from the floor and held Saint Joseph's to 21.4%. Two minutes into the stanza, Colby-Sawyer trailed 32-23, but then found the rhythm on offense and finished the frame on a 15-5 run. Hamilton had eight points for the Chargers.
In the low scoring fourth quarter, the teams traded baskets over the first couple of minutes. A Sugars free throw at 5:59 gave Colby-Sawyer a 43-39 lead. Unfortunately, that was the final point for the Chargers. Saint Joseph's took the lead on a Kaleigh Walsh (Windham, N.H.) jumper with just under four minutes to go and then she tacked on another bucket seconds later to give the Monks a 46-43 with 3:49 on the clock. That's where the score would stay as the Monks held on for the road win.
The difference in the contest was long range shooting as Saint Joseph's was 7-of-18, while Colby-Sawyer went 1-of-17.
COURTESY OF COLBY-SAWYER SPORTS INFORMATION
