WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Worcester State University used a 24-7 third quarter run to pull away for a 55-36 victory over Wellesley College basketball in a non-conference game on Sunday afternoon at Dorothy Towne Fieldhouse. The Lancers improve to 5-2 overall with their third straight victory. Wellesley is now 3-1 on the season. 

Worcester St. senior Kate Surprenant (Pelham, N.H.) dropped in 17 points to lead all players, finishing 7-of-10 from the floor, while adding three rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Sophomore Sam Maglione (Lancaster, Mass.) finished in double-figures with 12 points and junior Sam Ellis (Grafton, Mass.) chipped in eight points and three assists off the Lancer bench. Sophomore Gigi Lemay (Grafton, Mass.) pulled down a team-high seven rebounds and added six points. Worcester St. used 11 different players off the bench in the contest, outscoring the Blue bench 20-8. 

Sophomore Alyssa Cho (Hillsborough, Calif.) finished with 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting to lead the Blue. Cho also pulled down four rebounds in the contest, while junior Emily Kopp(King Ferry, N.Y) had a team-high with five. Junior guard Caitlin Aguirre (El Paso, Texas) finished with nine points, five assists, and four rebounds in the setback. Both Kopp and senior Zojajha Ayub (Belle Mead, N.J.) had three of Wellesley's 10 steals in the contest. 

The Blue went into the break trailing, 26-20, following a tight opening half. Wellesley opened the game on a 6-0 run but trailed by four at the start of the second quarter, as Worcester St. used a 14-4 run to take a 14-10 lead at the end of the first. Wellesley cut the deficit to two with 3:19 left before the break when Cho hit a jumper to make the score 22-20. However, Worcester St. followed with back-to-back buckets to end the half with a six-point lead.

The Lancers continued to build their lead at the start of the second half, outscoring the Blue 24-7 in the third quarter to take a 50-27 lead into the fourth. Surprenant finished an and-one at 6:04 to cap an 11-0 run at the start of the third and give Worcester St. a 37-22 lead. The visitors went on to limit Wellesley to just five points over the remaining six minutes, as Ellis capped the quarter with a triple to run the Worcester St. lead to 23 with 31 seconds left in the third. The 23-point deficit at the end of the third was the largest of the game for the Blue, as the Lancers would go on to close out the 55-36 win. 

Worcester St. finished the game shooting 46.9 percent (23-for-49) from the floor while limiting the Blue to just 29.1 percent (16-of-55) shooting from the floor. The visitors also had a 37-33 advantage on the glass and scored 19 points off of 21 Wellesley turnovers. 

Wellesley will open New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Wednesday, November 28, at 7:00 PM at Emerson. Worcester St. will host Conn. College at 7:00 PM on Thursday, November 29.