BOSTON, Mass. – The Endicott women's basketball team traveled to Boston on Tuesday evening for face Wentworth for a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) showdown. Despite the game high 16 points from junior Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) the Leopards pulled away in the second half to secure the 44-41 victory. Endicott falls to 10-13 (6-10 CCC) while Wentworth improves to 6-18 (4-13 CCC).
Endicott will take the court next on Thursday, February 19th as they host CCC foe Eastern Nazarene at 5:30 p.m. to make up the original date on January 26th that got rescheduled due to the weather. In their last meeting the Gulls fell to the Lions in a tough 95-86 battle. The Leopards will play next on Saturday, February 21st for the final regular season game of the season at Nichols at 2:00 p.m.
Overall Endicott led from the field producing a 29.6% mark to Wentworth's 27.8%, while shooting 100% from the charity stripe in their six attempts. The Leopards did shooting 25% from beyond the arc while the Gulls put up 15.8%. Following behind the 16 points from Cuddy, three members of the Wentworth squad scored in double figures to help seal the victory, the first coming from freshman Riselly Deoleo (Manchester, N.H.) who led the Leopards with 14 points (6-of-15) followed by 13 from junior Carly Rogers (Scarborough, Maine.) who hit a game high 5-of-8 from long-range and 11 points from senior Helena Kiritsy (Boylston, Mass.).
The first half was a battle as the Blue and Green just edged the Leopards 25-23 led by a 14 point effort from Cuddy who went 6-of-10 from the field while senior Kayleen Whall (Foxboro, Mass.) crashed the boards leading with five rebounds. Wentworth put up some strong numbers from the free throw line shooting 6-of-8 led by 3-of-4 from Rogers who led the Leopards with nine points. Wentworth played solid defense holding the Gulls to just one trip to the line while freshman Deoleo led both sides with two steals.
The second half showed a Blue and Green squad that struggled offensively shooting 23.8% from the field and 16.7% from long range while freshman Hannah Shaw (Bar Harbor, Maine) hit the highest mark with just four points. For their counterparts, Deoleo controlled the half with six rebounds and10 points out of the Leopards 21 overall points in the half which helped lead to the 26.9% shooting from the field and 33.3% (3-of-9) from long range.
Despite posting strong numbers in the first half, Cuddy struggled to fill the stat sheet only putting up a pair of free throws in her 20 minutes of play. Overall the Leopards came back in the half outscoring Endicott 21-16 which led to the eventual victory.
Endicott worked to stay in the game holding a one point deficit in the final minutes of regulation, but the Leopards were able to hold possession and force Endicott fouls to keep their advantage and 44-41 victory.
