SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Worcester State women's basketball team dropped a Saturday (Dec. 10) afternoon matchup to Springfield College 49-43 as the Pride ignited an 8-2 run in the overtime period to claim the victory.
The game saw nine ties and five lead changes as neither team led by more than six points at any point.
Worcester State started the scoring with a layup from Kate Surprenant (Pelham N.H.). However, the Pride stole the lead when Heather King (Lebanon, N.H.) made two back-to-back shots. Worcester's Catherine Sweeney (Lowell, Mass.) came through with two back-to-back shots herself to put the Lancers back on top 6-4. After one more tie, the Lancers closed out the first quarter with a 6-2 run to prevail 10-8 going into the second.
The Lancers held the lead throughout the entirety of the second period as they saw buckets from six different players, and kept the Pride from tying or stealing the lead despite back-to-back shots from Alex Goslin (S. Windsor, Conn.). The score at the intermission was 21-18 in the Lancers' favor.
Worcester held their lead for the first five minutes of the third quarter until Springfield's King made a jumper with 5:23 on the clock to knot the score at 24-24. After one more tie, the Pride took the lead on another jumper from King with 3:02 left in the quarter. However, Worcester State took back the lead on shots from TaNajia Smith (S. Windsor, Conn.) and Bianca Langford (Worcester, Mass.) in the last 33 seconds of the third for the 32-29 advantage going into the fourth stanza.
Worcester State kept the lead until King, once again, gave the Pride a 35-34 lead with 7:42 on the clock. From there, the game saw three more ties as Worcester State's Surprenant closed the out the quarter on a jumper with 18 seconds remaining. The Pride saw two more offensive chances, however the tie led the teams into overtime.
The Pride came away with the victory in the overtime period as Goslin registered four of the eight points on free throw shots, while the Lancers struggled to score.
Springfield's King led all scoring with 16 points, while Ava Adamopoulos (Ludlow, Mass.) came off the bench to register 14 points and five rebounds on the afternoon. Goslin finished with eight points, six boards, five assist, and three steals in the win.
For Worcester State, five different players scored at least six points, with Sweeney and Surprenant each netting seven. Langford added a game-high 11 points and Britt Herring (W. Brookfield, Mass.) was credited with four blocks.
Worcester State (4-7) look forward to their trip to Seville, Spain where they will play two Spanish Club teams on Dec. 29 and 30, before returning back to the States for a Jan. 4 matchup at MCLA.