NEWPORT, R.I. – The Endicott women's basketball team traveled to Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) opponent Salve Regina on Tuesday afternoon to kick off CCC play in 2015. Despite the 20 points from junior Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.), Salve Regina's, junior Meaghan Harden (Sandwich, Mass.) posted an impressive 37 points to hand the Gulls a 77-67 loss. Endicott falls to 5-6 (1-3 CCC) while the Seahawks improve to 6-5 (3-1 CCC).
Endicott will take the court next on Thursday, January 8th as they host CCC foe, Roger Williams for a 5:30 p.m. matchup. Last year the pair split in the regular season matchups before the Hawks ousted the Gulls from the CCC Tournament. Salve Regina will play next on Thursday as well as they travel to the reigning CCC Champions, University of New England for a 5:30 p.m. start.
Overall the Seahawks outshot the Gulls by just 10% from the field while Endicott led from the charity stripe scoring 14-of-21, led by junior Nicole Catizone (Woburn, Mass.) and Cuddy who each went 6-of-13 while freshman Gabriella Copolla (Watertown, Mass.) went 4-of-7. Despite the loss Endicott has again proved their depth as their bench posted 31 points, led by senior Kayleen Whall (Foxboro, Mass.) with 11, while the Seahawks bench scored a slim nine.
Both sides struggled to maintain the ball as the Blue and Green made 17 turnovers while the Seahawks also struggled with 16. However the Gulls did capitalize off the Salve Regina turnovers posting 28 total points in the game on those turnover opportunities.
The first half was a battle that ended in the Seahawks favor, just taking a nine point lead, led by CCC Player of the Week Harden with her 18 point effort. For the Gulls junior Nicole Catizone led the statistics sheet with her 11 points capped off by an impressive 5-of-8 scoring from inside the arc.
Salve Regina led from the field shooting 49% while Endicott shot 11-of-28 (39%) which helped give the conference foe the 37-28 edge ending the half. Both sides struggled from long range shooting just 29% while Endicott led from the charity stripe going almost perfect, 4-of-5.
The Gulls were able to play tough defense forcing nine Seahawk turnovers and scoring 14 points off the plays, however Salve Regina controlled the rebounding with 23 to Endicott's 12. The Seahawks also posted a strong defensive game leading with nine steals to the five from Endicott but junior Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) lead both sides with three blocks by the end of the first 20 minutes of play.
The second half showed stronger shooting in the field by the Blue and Green as they posted a 43% mark while Salve Regina picked up where they left off from the first with a 54% effort while going 50% from long-range.
Cuddy came out strong in the second half working to get the Gulls back in the game with her 14 points while Whall (9) and freshman Hannah Shaw (Bar Harbor, Maine) (7) came in off the bench with strong offensive games. For Salve Regina, Harden just could not be stopped as she came up big in the final minutes posting 19 total second half points to take the 77-67 victory.
