BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's basketball team hosted Western New England on Saturday afternoon for a Commonwealth Coast Conference regular season finale. Despite the game high 14 points from junior Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) the Golden Bears lifted to the 52-47 victory. Endicott finishes the regular season at 11-14 (7-11 CCC) while WNE improves to 16-9 (11-7).
Both sides will find a place in the upcoming CCC tournament that will begin on Tuesday, February 24th. The CCC will release the pairing this evening, please stay connected with ECGulls.com for updates.
Prior to the tip-off Endicott honored their three seniors: Carley Stauffer (Springfield, Vt.), Kayleen Whall (Foxboro, Mass.) and Katelyn Wright (Sudbury, Mass.). All three played an important role for the Gulls this evening despite the loss. We wish them all the best of luck in their future endeavors.
Overall the Golden Bears lead from the field with 40.4% to Endicott's 31.4% while Endicott led from the charity stripe shooting 83.3% (10-12). Both sides struggled from long-range as WNE edged the Blue and Green 28.6% to 22.7%. Coming in behind Cuddy, senior Sam McCann (Warren, Mass.) (10) and sophomore Sammie Battaini (Leominster, Mass.) (13) both shot in double figures for the Golden Bears.
WNE crashed the boards claiming 41 to the Gulls 27 led by 10 boards from junior Chelsea Vujs (Berlin, Conn.). For the Gulls, freshman Hannah Shaw recorded a game high four steals which helped lead to the 12 Endicott points off turnovers. The Golden Bears did show depth in the 40 minutes scoring 18 total bench points led by seven apiece from sophomore duo Paige Young (Berlin, Conn.) and Emily Anderson (Rocky Hill, Conn.).
The first half was a battle as WNE just took a three point advantage at the half 24-21. McCann led both sides with her 11 points while Cuddy followed with nine along with seven from Whall. Both Wright and Shaw came up with two steals on the defensive end while Vujs led both sides with six boards.
The Golden Bears started out the game on a 7-0 run holding the Gulls to zero points in the opening 4:39 minutes. However with some key shots from Cuddy and Whall Endicott was back in the game by the 13 minute mark. Stauffer nailed a deep trey at the 2:40 mark which helped keep the Gulls in check by the end of the half with just a three point deficit.
The second half was a bigger battle with WNE just outscoring the Gulls 28-26 while Shaw led both sides with her nine point effort followed by two steals. Endicott led from the beyond the arc shooting 30% to WNE's 16.7% while shooting perfect from the line. The Golden Bears did own the field with their 45% mark to Endicott's 37.0%.
By the 11:30 mark the Gulls were within one after a clutch three-pointer from Cuddy but after some strong shooting from Young the Golden Bears were able to pull away despite the last minute shots from both freshman Sam Charette (Wenham, Mass.) and Stuaffer. The Golden Bears shot strong from the line in the final minutes to secure the 52-47 victory.
