BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's basketball team played host to Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) opponent Nichols on Wednesday evening. With strong play making skills by senior Sarah Robinson (Norwich, Vt.) and 19 points from senior Samantha Crough (Cohasset, Mass.) the Gulls advance to 10-3, (6-1 CCC) in the 66-50 victory, while the Bison fall to 7-6, (2-5 CCC).
The first half was controlled by the Blue and Green as the outscored the Bison 31-15, while senior Jennifer White (Lisbon, N.H.) led the half in points with 10. In the opening minutes after a quick jumper from sophomore Jessica Kelliher (Marshfield, Mass.) the Gulls scored nine unanswered points, with six of them being from Crough. Senior Devon Spirka (Wilmington, Vt.) ended the lull by picking up a layup to make it a 4-11 game.
At the 14:09 mark sophomore Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) earned one point from the charity stripe that led to a three minute silence period from both sides. Coach Hutchinson called a timeout at 11:01 to get her squad on the same page which seemed to work because after a couple back to back layups from freshman Julia Zawacki (Waterford, Conn.) the Blue and Green stepped up and made seven consecutive points with efforts from Whall and Cuddy to make it a 24-10 score at 4:54 in Endicott's favor.
In the final minutes of the first half White started to heat up as she nailed three buckets from the free throw line along with a jumper in the field to score 5 out of her 10 points on the half in just one minute. To answer back as the buzzer went off junior Amber Litwinko (Berlin, Conn.) drained a trey as the backboard lit up to grab one final basket before heading into the locker room to make it a 31-15 point game.
The second half was a bigger battle than the first as both sides scored 35 points apiece, led by Crough for the Gulls with 11 and Sprika for Nichols with 10. In the opening minutes Crough and Cuddy rallied together as Cuddy drained two jumpers from long range to match Crough's four points from the field. Spirka answered back with back to back three-pointers and after a quick jumper from sophomore Kelliher the score was 46-29 with 13:38 remaining in the game.
The Blue and Green battled back to bring their lead back up to 24 after scoring nine consecutive points, but Nichols would not give up as they nabbed seven points in one minute to make it a 20 point game with seven minutes remaining.
In the final 6:35 minute of play the Bison went on a 10 point rally to get within 14 at 1:26 but it was not enough as the Gulls closed out the half to take the 66-50 victory. Overall the Blue and Green shot well from the field with an impressive 44.4% mark to go along with shooting 80% from the charity stripe and 33.3% from long range. Robinson played a strong game for Endicott in her 28 minutes of play where she led the team in assists with five and added two steals.
Prior to the tip-off of tonight's matchup Coach Brittany Hutchinson, her coaching staff along with her entire team happily honored senior Samantha Crough by presenting her with a ball to commemorate her career milestone of reaching 1,000 points last week.
Endicott will take the court next on Saturday when they host CCC opponent Western New England for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off. Nichols will also see CCC action on Saturday when they host Wentworth at 2:00 p.m.
