CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College freshman forward Denisha Parks (Fall River, Mass.) scored a game-high and collegiate career-high 34 points and head coach Laura Habacker earned her 100th career victory at Elms to help lift the Blazers to a 65-27 victory over Lesley University in Saturday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) women's basketball game at Picknelly Arena.
With the win, Elms improves its winning streak to six games and moves to 13-5 overall, 10-1 in NECC play. Lesley remains winless and falls to 0-16 on the season, 0-11 in league action.
After playing to a pair of tie scores and three lead changes in the early going, Elms began to pull away as Parks finished with 20 of her 34 points in the opening frame to help give the Blazers a 37-18 cushion at intermission.
The Blazers, who shot 40.5-percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, scored 26 points in the paint, scored 10 points on second chance opportunities and turned 11 Lesley turnovers into 12 points to help stake its 19-point advantage.
The Blazers used an 8-0 run over the first 5:05 of the second stanza to put the game out of reach and post a 47-18 lead. A pair of Sarah Apgar (Andover, N.J.) free throws gave the Lynx their first points of the second half but Lesley was held to just nine points in the final 14:55 as the Blazers cruised to a 65-27 victory.
Elms, which led by as many as 40 (62-22 with 5:54 remaining), used double-double efforts from Parks (34 points and 14 rebounds) and senior forward Erika Murphy (Torrington, Conn.) who netted 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Parks was superb from the floor hitting on 13 of 15 shots and making 8 of 10 free throws, while sophomore guard Emily Boucher (Ashburnham, Mass.) was the catalyst for the offense with five assists.
Sophomore guard Taylor Darby (Bristol, Conn.) registered six points to lead Elms' reserves which out-scored Lesley's bench, 15-1 to help seal the win.
Emily Fleming (Medford, Mass.) led the Lynx in defeat, scoring a team-high 10 points, while Chelsea Contre (Pomfret, Conn.) added a team-best 10 boards.
Sherrey Smith (Belmont, N.H.) and Carrie Fieger (Simsbury, Conn.) added six points each in the losing effort.
Elms returns to NECC action on Thursday, Feb. 2 when it hosts Daniel Webster College for a 6:00 p.m. tilt at Picknelly Arena.