Women's Basketball Eliminated From ECAC New England Tournament

Women's Basketball Eliminated From ECAC New England Tournament

Regis 63, Worcester State 53

Box Score

Weston, MA --- Regis junior Sarah McNult (Hampstead, NH) notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds to help lead the third-seeded Pride to a 63-53 victory over #7 Worcester State in the quarterfinals of the 2010 ECAC New England Tournament this evening.

Regis moves on to play sixth seeded Plymouth State at Keene State on Saturday at 3 PM. The Panthers upset #3 Endicott 70-59 earlier this evening in Plymouth, NH.

In other tournament action, the top-seeded Owls rolled to a 84-54 triumph over #8 Suffolk while #4 WPI defeated fifth seeded Norwich, 70-54. The Engineers will also play Keene State at 1 o’clock on Saturday.

Worcester State, who is winless in five ECAC appearances, ends their 2009-10 campaign at 15-14 overall.

Sophomore Stephanie Crawford (Rockland, MA) also paced Regis with a team-best 15 points while classmates Meghan Tobin (Quincy, MA) and Stephanie Wozmak (Auburn, NH) combined for 17 points.

Worcester State was led by senior Bri Flanders (Southampton, MA) who registered 15 points and seven boards as classmate Reilly O’Keefe (Warren, MA) finished her night with 13 points and seven caroms. Sophomore Kaleigh Charette (Fairhaven, MA) had a good all-around game with seven points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Regis used a tenacious full-court press to jump out to a 17-6 lead at 13:40 before the Lancers shutdown the Pride over the next eight minutes of play with a 12-0 run as they went ahead 18-17 at the 5:39 mark.

McNult knocked down a trey to put Regis up back on top 20-18, but WSC outscored the Pride 7-4 for the next 5½ minutes of play for the 25-24 halftime advantage. O’Keefe converted three consecutive lay-ups to end the period for Worcester State.

To start off the second half, the Pride went on an 11-2 spurt to leap in front 35-27 with 15:04 left. Worcester State remained in hot pursuit as they only trailed by four points on three occasions over the next six minutes of play.

With Regis up 45-41 at 9:02, the Pride 11 of the next 13 points as they surged ahead to push the advantage into double-digits (54-43). WSC used one final push to trail by only six points at 3:17 (54-48), but the Pride would outscore the visitors by a 9-5 margin in the waning minutes to seal the victory.

Regis held a 42-39 rebounding edge including a 14-10 advantage off the offensive glass. The Pride also forced 21 WSC miscues due in large part to 15 steals as they had a 22-18 lead in points off of turnovers which included 12 turnovers for 15 points in the second stanza alone.

Both squads shot modest totals from the field as WSC finished with a 36 percent (21-for-59) performance while Regis connected for 19-for-59 (32%). Both teams also shot poorly from beyond the arc as the Lancers hit just two of their 14 attempts as the Pride went 4-for-14 from three point land (28%).

Regis went 21-for-29 from the charity stripe (72 %) for the contest which included canning 13 of 20 in the final frame.