BEVERLY, Mass. – In the first of sixteen straight Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) women's basketball games that will take Endicott through the middle of February, the Gulls held off Western New England 56-50 on Saturday at MacDonald Gymnasium to stay unblemished in the CCC at 3-0.
Endicott, who improves to 7-3 overall, ended a two-game losing streak, while the Golden Bears drop their fifth game in the last six outings and dip below the .500 mark at 5-6, while their CCC record evens at 2-2.
In a tight game that featured ten lead changes and seven ties, the Gulls were able to use a balanced scoring attack that featured offensive production from eight different players, including seven or more points from each of the five starters. In fact, all eight scorers had already contributed by the end of the first half.
Junior guard Jennifer White (Lisbon, N.H.) shook off early shooting struggles and found her touch in the second half, scoring 11 of her team-high 13 points after the break. White also led all players with five assists and grabbed seven rebounds.
WNE's leading scorer on the season, senior Emily Savino (Ellington, Conn.), again led the Golden Bears with 14 points. Savino shot just 3-16 from the field but made all six of her attempts from the three-point line.
Junior guard Nicole Daly (Massapequa, N.Y.) provided an efficient 11 points on 4-7 from the field and 3-5 shooting from downtown for the visitors.
Each team shot 27% from beyond the three-point line, though the Golden Bears attempted 29 shots from downtown, to just 11 by the Gulls.
Neither team led by more than five points until the final seconds of play, with Endicott taking their biggest advantage with a 47-42 lead on a jumper by Samantha Crough (Cohasset, Mass.) with 7:23 to play. Crough had 11 points and led Endicott with 9 rebounds and three blocks, as the Gulls edged their visitors on the boards 45-43, with each team collecting 13 offensive rebounds.
The first twenty minutes saw Western New England take a five point lead and end the half ahead 30-26. Savino, who had ten points before the break, gave the Golden Bears an 18-13 advantage with a jumper at the nine-minute mark, after Endicott had led by as much as four in the early stages of play.
Endicott juniors Sarah Robinson (Norwich, Vt.) and Jordan Ferland (Charlestown, N.H.), chipped in with five points apiece in the first half and Crough already had six rebounds and two blocks in the first stanza. Robinson and Jen McBrien ended the game with seven points apiece, with McBrien adding seven rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Ferland would go on to contribute nine points for the Gulls, who as a team shot 32.8%, while the Golden Bears managed 27.4% from the field.
Savino and Daly (eight points) combined for more than half of WNE's first half output. Each of them hit twice from behind the three-point line, as did Katie Eckert (Lee, Mass.), as the Golden Bears attempted 19 of their three-pointers in the first half.
Elena Radzikowski (Medway, Mass.) was also in double-digits for WNE with ten points, while Chelsea Vujs (Berlin, Conn.) led all players with 12 rebounds. Eckert dished out four assists, and Savino had three dimes in a losing effort.
This was the tenth meeting between the two programs and the Gulls improve their all-time record against the Golden Bears to 7-3, though the teams split last year's series with each team winning on the road.
The Gulls will continue their two-game home-stand on Tuesday night when they welcome in Nichols College for a 5:30 pm start.