Wendy Davis Wins 100th Game As Bantam Head Coach

Norton, Mass. - Senior swing player Moriah Sweeney (Ramsey, N.J.) lit up the stat sheet with 17 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, five steals, and a blocked shot to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 75-68 victory over the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers in the opening round of the Cheryl Warren-Powers Memorial Women's Basketball Tournament at Wheaton College this evening. Trinity, playing in its season opener, will face the host Wheaton Lyons, who downed Lesley, 96-35, in the other first round game today, in the tournament finals tomorrow at 3 p.m. The win was also the 100th for Trinity Head Coach Wendy Davis with the Bantams. 205-158 in 14-plus years at Trinity and Western New England, Davis is 100-93 one game into her ninth year in Hartford.

With Trinity trailing, 30-27, late in the first half, Bantam junior forward Hannah Brickley (Melrose, Mass.) scored her team's last five points before the break to give Trinity a 33-31 lead after one half. Trinity extended its lead to 39-31 on a layup by senior Taylor Murtaugh (Bronx, N.Y,.) and back-to-back buckets by Sweeney to start the second half. The Bantams went ahead by double digits at 46-36 on a traditional three-point play by junior Taylor Higgins (Merrick, N.Y.), and took their largest lead, 50-36, on a Higgins jumper with 13:19 left in the contest.

Rensselaer slowly fought its way back and cut the lead to two points at 68-66 on a steal and layup by Lauren Young with 1:10 on the clock, but Trinity sophomore guard Christina Raiti (Plainview, N.Y.) answered with a three-pointer and the Bantam defense did not allow the Engineers to even attempt a field goal the rest of the way.

Higgins and Murtaugh joined Sweeney in double figures in scoring with 12 and 11 points, respectively, while Higgins also dished out four assists and Murtaugh added six boards and two blocked shots. Trinity shot 50 percent from the field and held Rensselaer to a 36.5 field goal percentage.