SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Senior tri-captain Emily Savino scored 20 points to go along with seven rebounds and seven assists, and freshman Chelsea Vujs added a career-high 16 points, to lead the surging Western New England University women's basketball team past Commonwealth Coast Conference foe Endicott, 62-52, Saturday at the Alumni Healthful Living Center field house. The win is the Golden Bears fifth in a row, and their conference record is now 10-4 (13-8 overall). The visiting Gulls drop to 8-6 in the CCC and 12-9 overall.
The Golden Bears led 8-4 five minutes into the game thanks to five early points from Savino, but Endicott was able to draw even at 10-10 midway through the half. Western New England was not shy about shooting the three-ball in the first half, and its success in doing so allowed the home team to build a 10-point lead, 28-18, at the 3:51 mark.
Savino was 3-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc in the first half, and Vujs was 3-for-3, leading to a 31-28 advantage for the Golden Bears at the break. Other than three-point shooting, the teams played extremely even, as both shot 10-of-29 from the field and each committed five turnovers. Western New England led in the rebounding department, 21-20.
The Golden Bears came out in the second half determined to take the ball to the rim rather than launch up 3s. This resulted in an 8-2 run to open the half, and a 39-30 lead. Western New England then began to add on to its advantage, as a Savino layup with less than 10 minutes to go gave the Golden Bears their largest lead of the game at 47-35. A Katie Eckert trey a few minutes later extended the lead to 16, but the Golden Bears were not done yet.
On the next possession, Western New England turned a broken play into the play of the game when Vujs grabbed a loose ball as the shot clock was winding down and drained a desperation 3-pointer. This put the Golden Bears up by 17 at 57-40. Endicott continued to play tough and even managed to cut the deficit to eight in the final minute, but the Gulls were never able to recover from the large deficit earlier in the half.
The Gulls were led by forwards Jennifer White (15 points, four rebounds) and Samantha Crough (10 points, four assists). Guard Jen McBrien tallied a game-high eight assists.
Eckert contributed seven points and eight rebounds for Western New England.
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