BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's basketball team is now winners of five straight games after taking care of local rival Gordon College 67-36 on Tuesday at MacDonald Gymnasium. A standout performance from senior guard Nicole Heffernan (Londonderry, N.H.) powered the Gulls (9-5) to their eighth win in ten games, and they continue to sit at the top of the Commonwealth Coast Conference with a 6-1 CCC record. The Scots, who recently picked up their first CCC win of the year, now fall to 1-6 in the conference, and 6-8 overall.
Heffernan had her shooting touch working, particularly in the first half when she shot 5-5 from the floor and 3-3 from behind the three-point line. She made two shots from downtown in the last minute of the first half that turned a 9 point lead into a 30-15 halftime advantage for the Gulls. She then sunk another trey in the opening two minutes of the second half then had three straight steals and an assist on a Jen White (Lisbon, N.H.) jumper that helped extend the lead to 22 (40-18).
White contributed nine points and six assists, while Heffernan closed the game with 16 points on 6-8 shooting (4-5 from three), four assists, three rebounds and four steals.
Freshman star Leanna Tallamy (Wantage, N.J.) did her best to keep the Scots close in the first half, scoring eleven points on 5-10 shooting from the field, but the visitors as a team shot just 23 percent in the first stanza, and would end the game hitting just a quarter of their shot attempts.
Gordon hung around for the first ten minutes of play, using seven quick points from Tallamy to take slim leads three times. Tallamy finished the game with 15 points and eight rebounds, both tops for Gordon, though below her season average of nearly 17 and 10. Endicott shut her down in the second half, holding her to just four points, all from the free-throw line.
Heffernan's first three-pointer of the game, with 10:30 left in the first half, gave Endicott the lead for good. They would extend their advantage on a jumper by forward Samantha Crough (Cohasset, Mass.) and two straight buckets by Jen McBrien (Medfield, Mass.) before Heffernan connected twice from beyond the arc.
Crough collected her ninth straight game with at least 10 points for the Gulls. The sophomore dropped 14 points and made it a double-double by leading Endicott with 10 rebounds. Classmate Julie Manning (Hull, Mass.) added eight points, three rebounds one assist and one steal in just seven minutes of playing time as she helped the Gulls close the game on a 16-5 run.
Brooke Kratche (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) scored six points and collected six rebounds for Gordon, while also swatting three blocks on the night. Starters Catey Marshall (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) and Aly Towle (Rochester, N.H.) each grabbed five rebounds and combined for seven points in the loss.
With the win, Endicott also picks up points in the North Shore Cup, a new yearly award presented to the school that gets the better of matchups between Endicott, Gordon, and Salem State University.
Endicott will hit the road for their first time in three games on Thursday night when they travel to a road contest against the University of New England. The Gulls and the Nor'easters will tip off at 5:30 pm. Gordon will be in Boston at the same time to challenge Wentworth College.