Worcester, MA --- Tournament MVP Dani Davis (East Granby, CT) paced WPI with 18 points and eight rebounds as the Engineers earned their sixth Worcester City Women's Basketball Tournament championship with a 75-59 triumph over Clark on Sunday afternoon in Harrington Auditorium.
The Engineers (2-0) claimed the title for the sixth time in the 34-year history of the tournament and first since 2011. Clark, who won in 2012 and 2013, is now 1-1 on the season.
Rachel Pineda (Shrewsbury, MA) joined Davis on the All-Tournament team while Brooke Brennan (Weston, CT) and Sam O'Gara (Worcester, MA) took home the honor for the Cougars. Also named to the team was Julie Frankian (Millbury, MA) from Worcester State and Brooke Martel (Griswold, CT) from Becker. Earlier in the day, WSU defeated the Hawks 84-24 in the consolation game.
Lisa Mendez (Yonkers, NY) led all scorers with a career-high 20 points and Tess Nogueira(Merrimac, MA) hauled in a career-best 10 boards. Pineda added nine points for the Crimson and Gray while Haili Welton (Southbury, CT) tallied six points, five rebounds, three assists and a game-high three steals.
Clark was led by O'Gara with 15 points and three helpers. Brennan added 11 points and Sami Dukas (Littleton, MA) chipped in with 10. Torieana St. Pierre (Portsmouth, NH) and Dukas each grabbed six boards.
The Cougars took the early 5-0 lead on a triple and a layup by St. Pierre just 1:43 into the contest. After a free throw by WPI's Jessica Larsen (Poway, CA), Davis cut the Engineers deficit to a pair twice with a jumper at 17:44 and 15:33. Just over a minute later, Pineda sparked a WPI 17-2 outburst that resulted in a 22-11 Engineer lead with 10:29 left in the half.
After O'Gara brought the Cougars within eight following a jumper at 9:42, Yasmeen Luna (North Providence, RI) answered for the hosts 24 seconds later to push the advantage back to 10. WPI went on to build a 13-point cushion before a Clark five-point spurt, capped by a St. Pierre layup at 5:55, brought the game back within eight once again. The Crimson and Gray pushed the advantage to 13 and the Cougars whittled the deficit to nine twice in the final 2:17 before the break.
The Cougars pulled within seven courtesy of a layup by Olivia Lyons (Belmont, MA) at 16:34 left in the second half. Mendez responded for the Engineers with a 3-pointer 21 seconds later to push the Crimson and Gray's lead back into double digits. Nogueira added two more to the margin before Brennan ignited a 6-0 run to slice it in half with 12:52 to play. Welton halted the rally with a jumper 50 ticks later only to have Brennan respond with a triple to get the Cougars within five at 11:47. A minute later, Nogueira corralled a missed Clark 3-point attempt and dished it off to Pineda, who went coast-to-coast for the layup. Lyons canned a pair of free throws at 10:22 to get the visitors within five for the final time as the Engineers slowly began to pull away for the 75-59 final.