BENNINGTON, VT - Sophomore Keneisha Milton (Boston, MA/Wayland) recorded her seventh double-double of the season, tallying a career-high 20 points to go along with 17 rebounds, but Southern Vermont College scored the go-ahead hoop with 2.2 seconds remaining in overtime on Saturday to down Wheelock College, 61-60, at Mountaineer Gymnasium during New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) play.
The Wildcats slipped to 3-11 overall and 2-5 in the league, while Southern Vermont is now 3-11 and 1-6. Each team has won three of the past six meetings, though Wheelock's losses have all come by two points or less.
Milton also recorded five steals for Wheelock, which notched 17 as a team while forcing 29 turnovers. Junior Maya Spratling (Dorchester, MA/Cathedral) also had a big game with 14 points, a career-high 16 boards and three steals, while classmate Kayla Drescher (Wallingford, CT/Mark T. Sheehan) provided 15 rebounds, eight points, career bests of seven assists and five steals, as well as two blocked shots. Sophomore Sarah McCaffrey (East Taunton, MA/Taunton) hit a pair of three-pointers while collecting eight points.
Southern Vermont junior Joa Claircius (Clermont, FL/East Ridge) led all scorers with 21 points - including hitting the winning shot - to go along with six steals as the only Mountaineer in double figures. Freshman Kourtney Hewitt (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) hauled in 11 boards, while senior Tiarra Hall (Washington, DC/Calvin Coolidge) had 10. The hosts forced 16 turnovers.
Wheelock yielded the first six points of the game before tallying an 11-0 run during an early 4:50 stretch of the opening half. Spratling dropped in the final three buckets, making it 11-6 at 12:05. The hosts countered with a 9-2 run to edge back in front before three ties ensued, and the Wildcats later wiped out a four-point hole with a 12-4 run late in the stanza. Milton scored the first two and final two points in that stretch, making it 31-27 with 6.5 seconds to go, while McCaffrey canned a pair of threes 1:11 apart, including the go-ahead trey with 40 ticks left. Claircius beat the buzzer with a baseline jumper, bringing her team within 31-29 at intermission.
The Wildcats went up by as many as five points during the second half, at 45-40, and led 56-52 on a Drescher hoop with 2:07 remaining, but Hewitt's lay-up with 42.1 seconds to go knotted the score at 56. Wheelock missed a pair of free throws with 22.2 ticks left, and each team turned the ball over twice in the final three seconds of a tie game.
Spratling's jumper at 4:26 of overtime pushed Wheelock on top before the Mountaineers went up by one, but Drescher pushed the visitors back in front, 60-59, with 26 seconds left. However, Claircius drove for another baseline jumper with 2.2 ticks remaining, and Wheelock's inbounds pass was intercepted.
Wheelock begins a four-game homestand, with each contest against an NECC opponent on Tuesday versus Lesley University at 7 p.m.