Jan 30, 2016
BIDDEFORD, Maine -- The University of New England raced out to a 20-1 cushion just over six minutes into the game and cruised to an 80-32 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) women's basketball victory over Nichols College on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 30) at the Harold Alfond Forum.
Since returning from the holiday break, Big Blue has won all of its 11 outings, improving to 16-3 and 12-0 in the CCC.
Alicia Brown led the early offense and finished with 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting, while adding six rebounds. Alanna Vosehit four treys and tallied 12 of her 18 points in the 4th to become the 23rd player in UNE program history to reach the 1,000-point career plateau. The Nor'easters also received 13 points on 5-of-8 field goals, to go with seven assists and six rebounds, from Meghan Gribbin. Olivia Shaw totaled 15 points and four steals. Lauren Hayden pulled in a game-best 11 boards.
For the contest, the hosts shot 48.5 percent from the floor and converted 29 Bison turnovers into 39 points going the other way (27 fastbreak). Meanwhile, Nichols made just 21.2 percent of its tries in the match.
Brown (8), Gribbin (7), and Shaw (5) were responsible for the scoring early, and UNE made 57 percent (13 for 23) of its attempts in the opening 10 minutes to hold a 29-5 lead. The spread was 30 (43-13) at the half, with all three players already in double figures.
The Nor'easters -- who have taken the last 14 meetings with Nichols, including a 72-31 result less than three weeks ago -- continued to make things difficult for their opponents in the 3rd. Big Blue built the gap up to 62-13 before the Bison got on the board with 1:40 remaining in the period.
Taylor Daniels had a team-high nine points for NC (3-16, 2-10 CCC).
UNE -- which is ranked at No. 25 in the latest WBCA Coaches Top 25 Poll and is receiving votes (#34) in the D3hoops.com Poll -- will remain at home to face Gordon College (0-12 CCC) on Tuesday (5:30 p.m.).