NEW LONDON, N.H. – February 21, 2012 – The Colby-Sawyer women's basketball team advanced to the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) semifinals after defeating Lyndon, 79-63 in quarterfinal action Tuesday evening.
Colby-Sawyer, the tournament's number-two seed, improves to 20-6 and will play the third seed Eagles of Husson on Friday at 3:00 pm. The game will be played at Castleton, who is hosting the final four format with the semifinals being played on Friday afternoon and the championship game taking place on Saturday afternoon. Husson advanced after defeating Maine-Farmington 70-65 on Tuesday night.
Colby-Sawyer was led by junior Taylor DeSanty's (North Adams, Mass.) 27 points. Junior Cailin Bullett added 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists. She connected on all 10 of her free throw attempts. Freshman Kelsey Cahill (Cumberland, R.I.) recorded her third straight double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Lyndon was led by a 21 point, 14 rebound performance from junior Donna Lawson (Irasburg, Vt.). She was the only Hornet to reach double-figures, but the team received nine points from senior Danielle LaFont (Albany, Vt.), sophomore Chelsea Watson (Eliot, Maine), senior Naomi White (Danville, Vt.), and freshman Dannika Dobrowski (Plainfield, Vt.).
The first half was closely played throughout and featured four ties and three lead changes. Colby-Sawyer held a slim 15-13 lead midway through the frame before erupting with an 8-2 run to extend the advantage to the largest of the half at 23-15. Lyndon quickly responded with an 8-0 run of their own on five points from Lawson and a trey from White. The home team was on top 31-29 with a minute to play, when DeSanty hit two consecutive layups to give Colby-Sawyer a halftime lead of 35-29.
The second half began with another run from the Hornets who eventually tied the game 39-39 at the 16:32 mark on a three by Watson. Bullett scored the game's next six points to give Colby-Sawyer a lead they would not relinquish. The Charger defense held Lyndon to 24% shooting in the half and 27% for the game. Although Colby-Sawyer shot just 1-11 from beyond the arc in the second frame, they were extremely efficient from two-point range (13-23). Bullett led all scorers with 16 second half points.
The Chargers held a 52-40 edge on the glass and a 42-20 advantage of points in the paint.