Worcester State 34, McDaniel 51
In the first quarter, the Lancers went one-for-one with the Green Terror. Though, McDaniel went on a six point run on buckets from Jasmine Smith, Ekatereni Tsomos, and Lindsey Nichols. In the second quarter, McDaniel increased their lead to eight on a layup from Halle Burgess. Worcester State closed the gap up with six minutes to go on a 3-point shot from freshman Kaitlyn Berkel (Waterford, Conn.), but McDaniels' Brittany Davis and Tsomos answered with 3-pointers on the other end to put McDaniel up by 11. Just before the half, Worcester's TaNajia Smith (S. Windsor, Conn.) made a jumper and made it a tighter 25-20 to go into the third.
To start out the third quarter, McDaniel went on a 10-0 run to put the Green Terror up by 15. Worcester State closed the gap on a few shots from the field and free-throws, though, McDaniel kept scoring, which led to a 41-29 lead at the end of the third. In the fourth quarter, the Lancers were only able to put up two buckets and a free throw, while the McDaniel outscored them with 10 points to claim the win.
The Lancers' freshman center, Britt Herring (W. Brookfield, Mass.) carried the team as she scored nine points and had a game-high 16 rebounds (eight offensively and defensively). Also scoring nine points for the Blue and Gold was Samm Toli (Taunton, Mass.). Berkel scored seven points and added in eight rebounds.
For McDaniel, Nichols led her team with 18 points, seven rebounds, five steals, two assists, and one block. Davis and Tsomos scored eight points apiece, while J. Smith and Karli Zeps each had five.
Worcester State then advanced to the consolation game where they faced Newbury College, who had lost to the York College Spartans in the semifinals, 64-30 earlier that day.
Worcester State 49, Newbury College 55
Worcester State's Natasha Gonzalez (Milford, Mass.) scored a team-high 12 points in the 55-49 loss to Newbury College in the consolation game. She tallied up five rebounds and two steals for the Blue and Gold. Kaitlyn Berkel (Waterford, Conn.) came one short of a double-double, rallying up nine points, 12 rebounds, and a game-high six blocks. Leading the team on the boards, was Britt Herring (W. Brookfield, Mass.) with 13 rebounds (five offensively).
Three of Newbury College's players scored in double digits (Savannah Olsen, Taylor Kelley, and Destiny Spears) to help pull the Nighthawks over the Lancers.
Newbury College took the lead right off the bat, as they went on a 7-0 run to begin the game in the first quarter. Worcester State looked to fight back and kept within decent range of the Nighthawks. It wasn't until there was 5:33 left in the fourth quarter that the Lancers took their first lead of the game off a layup from Berkel. Newbury took the lead once again with 3:49 left in the game on free throws from Olsen. They then kept their lead as the free-throw game played a role in the 55-49 loss for the Lancers.
The Lancers are currently 2-3 on the season. They will remain play on Tuesday (Nov. 24) when they have their home opener against St. Joseph's. The game will be played at Anna Maria College at 7:00 p.m.
Ninth Annual Coaches vs. Cancer All-Tournament Team
MVP: Sam Hruz (York)
Morgan Kuehne (York)
Lindsay Nichols (McDaniel)
Destiny Spears (Newbury)
TaNajia Smith (Worcester State)