BIDDEFORD, Maine – The Endicott women's basketball team fought hard with a career-high night from freshman guard Catie Lipscomb (West Springfield, Mass.), but ran out of steam in a 62-54 road loss Wednesday night as the University of New England claimed its fifth straight Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) regular season title inside Harold Alfond Fourm.
The Nor'easters stormed out of the gates, amassing a 9-0 run midway through the opening stanza at the 5:03 mark and went up 13-7 at the end of the first quarter.
Endicott managed to take its only lead of the game, 16-15, on Lipscomb's three-pointer with 6:36 remaining in the first half.
UNE went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes to hold a 23-16 lead at the 3:31 mark before the half.
The Gulls trailed 29-25 at halftime as senior guard Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) led all scorers with 10 points in the first twenty minutes of action.
The Nor'easters put together a strong third quarter and earned their first double-digit lead of the night, going up 11 with 6:39 on the clock in the third quarter.
UNE extended that lead to 14 points (49-35) on senior guard Meghan Gribbin's (Windham, Maine) layup with 1:15 left in the third quarter and again (56-42 with 7:37 in the fourth), but the Gulls battled back to chip away during crunch time, flirting with several 10-point deficits and finally pulled the score to as close as eight points as time expired.
Cuddy carried the Gulls with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-17 FG, 1-4 3 PT, 5-7 FT and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to go with three assists, two blocks and one steal.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- The game featured zero ties and two lead changes.
- The Nor'easters scored 40 points in the paint, compared to 18 points for Endicott.
- UNE out-rebounded Endicott, 30-29.
- Endicott held UNE to its tied-for-second lowest point total of the season in a victory.
- The Gulls scored just seven points in the first quarter as they got off to a slow start.
- Endicott placed two in double-digits as Lipscomb poured in a career-high 15 points as she knocked down all shots she took (five triples) to join Cuddy in double-figures.
- Sophomore guard Gabriella Coppola (Watertown, Mass.) dished out a game-high eight assists of the team's 15 helpers.
FOR THE FOES
- UNE forced 21 Endicott turnovers and turned those into 24 points.
- Senior guard Lauren Hayden (Chantilly, Va.) paced the Nor'easters' scoring attack with 15 points and had a game-high nine steals.
- UNE had four student-athletes in double figures as senior guard Alanna Vose (Cushing, Maine) chipped in 13 points, followed by sophomore forward Olivia Shaw (Saco, Maine) and Gribbin with 10 points each to join Hayden in the double-digit scoring fest.
- Shaw and junior center Alicia Brown (Greenland, N.H.) each pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds.
- The Nor'easters are on a 14-game win streak.
- The University of New England women's basketball team has been listed at 3rd of 81 teams in the Northeast Region, as the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship Committee released its first set of regional rankings on Wednesday (Feb. 10).
- The team also has a national ranking presence with the No. 22 spot in the latest Top 25 D3hoops.com poll and No. 20 in WBCA Coaches Poll announced this week.
- The Nor'easters are 44-0 versus CCC opponents at the Harold Alfond Forum since the facility opened in 2012.
- UNE closed to within one victory of its eighth straight 20-win season.
NOTES
- Endicott is 12-23 all-time and 5-14 on the road at UNE dating back prior to the 2002 season.
- The Nor'easters won the most recent meeting before today, 65-57, in Beverly, Mass. on Jan. 19, 2016 to complete the regular season series sweep.
WHAT'S NEXT
Both teams are back in action on Saturday, February 13 at 1:00 p.m. as the Gulls (13-9, 11-4 CCC) host Gordon College, while the University of New England (19-3, 15-0 CCC) travels to Bristol, R.I. to play Roger Williams. Endicott will be hosting a Youth Day on Saturday with a meet-and-greet session following the game. For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.