Feb 28, 2015
BIDDEFORD, Maine -- Top-seeded University of New England battled past third-seeded Curry College, 81-72, to win the 2015 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Women's Basketball Championship on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 28) at the Harold Alfond Forum.
Big Blue (23-5) earns the CCC's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship, which will begin on Friday (Mar. 6) at 16 sites around the country. The Nor'easters will learn their draw in the tournament when the LIVE selection show airs Monday (2:30 p.m.) on NCAA.com.
UNE's sixth appearance in the league final since joining the CCC back in 1999 netted the program's fifth title, following victories in 2001, 2010, 2013, and 2014. Big Blue is into the NCAA field for the fourth straight season.
Junior Meghan Gribbin tallied a career-high 23 points to pace the hosts -- 20 of which came following halftime. Senior Kelly Coleman added 16 points and a team-best nine rebounds. Junior Sadie DiPierro went 4-of-6 from downtown to end with 12 points, and pulled in seven boards. Sophomore Brooke Flaherty came off the bench to knock down 6-of-8 field goal tries, and junior Lauren Hayden made it five players in double figures with 10 points to go with four steals. Gribbin also dished out seven assists; Coleman and Hayden each had five helpers.
For the Colonels (17-11), senior Kylie Beltz had 19 points and six assists. Sophomore reserve Alyssa Keeney made 5-of-7 from deep and totaled 17 points, while senior Jeanette Fallon chipped in with 14. Junior Kerry White grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
The scoring output for Beltz moved her into a tie atop the Curry all-time points list (1,460).
The Colonels will await word on a potential bid into the ECAC New England Championship.
Play was back-and-forth early on, with three lead-changes and four ties during the initial nine minutes. UNE led 20-19 before a 9-0 spurt in 1:40 provided some breathing room; treys by Gribbin and Hayden, and then a three-point play by Coleman, pushed Big Blue ahead.
A three-pointer by Keeney momentarily kept the Curry within range, but the home side notched the next seven points to go up, 37-24. Curry first-year Brianna Hoffman, who had all of her eight points in the 1st half, answered with a triple in the waning seconds of the period to make it 37-27 at intermission.
The Nor'easters extended the advantage to 18 (56-38) a little more than six minutes into the 2nd stanza with an 8-1 stretch that featured baskets by Hayden, Flaherty, and DiPierro. And the cushion was still 17 (69-52) with 5:21 left on the clock.
Treys by Fallon and Beltz (twice) cut the margin to eight (69-61). Coleman answered with one of her own (first in 9 games), but Keeney canned another from distance and Beltz converted a layup on the break to make it 72-66 with 2:34 remaining.
Then Gribbin took over for UNE. The point guard capitalized on open space along the right wing for a three-pointer to restore the nine-point lead, only to see Keeney respond right back with a triple after an offensive rebound.
Coleman found Gribbin for a back-door lay-in (77-69), and, following an empty possession on the Colonels end, Gribbin gained the corner and drove right for a hoop and some harm. Though she only went 2-for-5 at the charity stripe in the last 66 seconds, Curry could just get one more three-pointer, by Keeney, out of four shots as the rally fell short.
After both squads connected at a 33 percent clip from the floor in the opening frame, the Nor'easters went 17-for-29 (58.6%) in the closing 20 minutes. All parties were effective from behind the arc in the contest, with the Colonels going 13-of-27 and UNE making 10-of-21. Six of the last seven field goals by Curry came from long range.
Over the three-game tournament run, Big Blue out-shot its opponents by a 46-34 accuracy margin, and drilled 31-of-63 attempts from deep. UNE reached double digits in triples each time, something it had done on just three occasions through the first 25 outings of the year.
"It [3-peat] is really hard to do," said head coach Anthony Ewing. "The kids worked really hard. We had some peaks and valleys for a team that's 23-5, we really did. But we managed them, and the way we played this conference tournament, it's really some of the best basketball we've played all year. It's nice to do that going into the NCAA tournament."
On the other side of the ball, Curry was making its first CCC title-match appearance in recent history. "They have a lot of senior leadership on that team, and I'm not surprised they stepped up. They made shots down the stretch and made it interesting," added Ewing. "As good as Curry was today, I think we weathered that storm pretty well."
UNE has won 22 of 23 meetings with the Colonels, dating back to 1999-00 when Big Blue joined the conference. Since the opening of the Harold Alfond Forum for the 2012-13 campaign, the Nor'easters have been victorious in the last 36 contests against CCC competition played on their home court.
Big Blue (23-5) earns the CCC's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship, which will begin on Friday (Mar. 6) at 16 sites around the country. The Nor'easters will learn their draw in the tournament when the LIVE selection show airs Monday (2:30 p.m.) on NCAA.com.
UNE's sixth appearance in the league final since joining the CCC back in 1999 netted the program's fifth title, following victories in 2001, 2010, 2013, and 2014. Big Blue is into the NCAA field for the fourth straight season.
Junior Meghan Gribbin tallied a career-high 23 points to pace the hosts -- 20 of which came following halftime. Senior Kelly Coleman added 16 points and a team-best nine rebounds. Junior Sadie DiPierro went 4-of-6 from downtown to end with 12 points, and pulled in seven boards. Sophomore Brooke Flaherty came off the bench to knock down 6-of-8 field goal tries, and junior Lauren Hayden made it five players in double figures with 10 points to go with four steals. Gribbin also dished out seven assists; Coleman and Hayden each had five helpers.
For the Colonels (17-11), senior Kylie Beltz had 19 points and six assists. Sophomore reserve Alyssa Keeney made 5-of-7 from deep and totaled 17 points, while senior Jeanette Fallon chipped in with 14. Junior Kerry White grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
The scoring output for Beltz moved her into a tie atop the Curry all-time points list (1,460).
The Colonels will await word on a potential bid into the ECAC New England Championship.
Play was back-and-forth early on, with three lead-changes and four ties during the initial nine minutes. UNE led 20-19 before a 9-0 spurt in 1:40 provided some breathing room; treys by Gribbin and Hayden, and then a three-point play by Coleman, pushed Big Blue ahead.
A three-pointer by Keeney momentarily kept the Curry within range, but the home side notched the next seven points to go up, 37-24. Curry first-year Brianna Hoffman, who had all of her eight points in the 1st half, answered with a triple in the waning seconds of the period to make it 37-27 at intermission.
The Nor'easters extended the advantage to 18 (56-38) a little more than six minutes into the 2nd stanza with an 8-1 stretch that featured baskets by Hayden, Flaherty, and DiPierro. And the cushion was still 17 (69-52) with 5:21 left on the clock.
Treys by Fallon and Beltz (twice) cut the margin to eight (69-61). Coleman answered with one of her own (first in 9 games), but Keeney canned another from distance and Beltz converted a layup on the break to make it 72-66 with 2:34 remaining.
Then Gribbin took over for UNE. The point guard capitalized on open space along the right wing for a three-pointer to restore the nine-point lead, only to see Keeney respond right back with a triple after an offensive rebound.
Coleman found Gribbin for a back-door lay-in (77-69), and, following an empty possession on the Colonels end, Gribbin gained the corner and drove right for a hoop and some harm. Though she only went 2-for-5 at the charity stripe in the last 66 seconds, Curry could just get one more three-pointer, by Keeney, out of four shots as the rally fell short.
After both squads connected at a 33 percent clip from the floor in the opening frame, the Nor'easters went 17-for-29 (58.6%) in the closing 20 minutes. All parties were effective from behind the arc in the contest, with the Colonels going 13-of-27 and UNE making 10-of-21. Six of the last seven field goals by Curry came from long range.
Over the three-game tournament run, Big Blue out-shot its opponents by a 46-34 accuracy margin, and drilled 31-of-63 attempts from deep. UNE reached double digits in triples each time, something it had done on just three occasions through the first 25 outings of the year.
"It [3-peat] is really hard to do," said head coach Anthony Ewing. "The kids worked really hard. We had some peaks and valleys for a team that's 23-5, we really did. But we managed them, and the way we played this conference tournament, it's really some of the best basketball we've played all year. It's nice to do that going into the NCAA tournament."
On the other side of the ball, Curry was making its first CCC title-match appearance in recent history. "They have a lot of senior leadership on that team, and I'm not surprised they stepped up. They made shots down the stretch and made it interesting," added Ewing. "As good as Curry was today, I think we weathered that storm pretty well."
UNE has won 22 of 23 meetings with the Colonels, dating back to 1999-00 when Big Blue joined the conference. Since the opening of the Harold Alfond Forum for the 2012-13 campaign, the Nor'easters have been victorious in the last 36 contests against CCC competition played on their home court.