BIDDEFORD, Maine -- Junior forward Beth Suggs (Bath, Maine) posted a double-double of 22 points and 12 rebounds to help the top-seeded University of New England women's basketball defeat No. 8 Nichols College, 63-55, in a quarterfinal round game of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship played Tuesday evening at James A. Beaudry Gymnasium.

The Nor'easters (22-4) move on to Thursday's CCC semifinal round to face No. 4 Endicott College (a 57-49 winner over Roger Williams University) at 7 p.m. in Biddeford.

Suggs shot 9-of-16 from the floor and made all four of her freebies to pace UNE, which topped the Bison for the sixth straight meeting between the teams. Fellow junior Liz LeBlanc (Jay, Maine) was the other Big Blue player in double figures with 12 points, converting 3-of-7 tries from long range off the bench.

For Nichols -- which concludes its season with a record of 6-20 -- junior forward Hayley Zophin (Framingham, Mass.) put together a 15-point, 15-board performance, including making 7-of-8 free throw attempts and pulling in seven offensive rebounds. Classmate Kristina Lindgren (Sturbridge, Mass.) added 10 points.

Big Blue got its first six points of the game from Suggs, and two from the charity stripe by senior Kelley Paradis (Newport, Maine) made it 8-0 after 3:21. With an 11-4 cushion, a layup from Suggs and a fastbreak trey from LeBlanc pushed the margin to it largest (16-4) at the 12:37 mark.

The Bison used a 10-2 stretch later in the period to draw within two (21-19), but UNE registered the next seven points to gain some breathing room (28-19). The Nor'easters took a 32-24 advantage into the halftime break, as Suggs and LeBlanc combined for 21 points. Nichols was led by senior Chelsea Shaughnessy (Halifax, Mass.), who scored seven of her nine in the frame.

UNE extended the gap to 12 (36-24) right out of the gate in the second, and from there, the margin swung between six and 11 points for the next 13-plus minutes.

Trailing 55-45 with 6:28 left, Zophin tallied four in a quick six for the Bison to make it a four-point contest (55-51). LeBlanc dropped in her only three points of the final stanza back on the other end to stop the run, before Zophin tacked on two more cut the difference to 58-53 and 4:20 on the clock.

Neither team scored in the ensuing 3:33, until Paradis hit a pair from the free throw line with 47 ticks left. Zophin was fouled and put two back on the board for Nichols (60-55), but the Nor'easters made 3-of-4 from the line in the last 18 seconds to seal the victory.

For the game, the Bison shot a better field goal percentage than the hosts (42%-36%) and out-rebounded UNE by five (40-35), only to suffer from 22 turnovers committed.

Next up for Big Blue is Endicott -- a team it swept during the regular-season. The Nor'easters won the January 19 match at home, 63-59, before taking a 71-59 decision from the Gulls on the road just six days ago (Feb. 14).

The higher seeds in the other two quarterfinal also advanced to meet each other on Thursday in Rhode Island. Second seed Salve Regina University topped Curry College, 54-32, and third-seeded Western New England University downed Eastern Nazarene College by a score of 66-50. The Golden Bears came out victorious in both contests against SRU during the season.