Balanced Scoring Helps Women's Hoops to 62-50 Win over Eastern Nazarene

NEWTON, Mass. (12/10/13) – The Lasell College women's basketball team battled past visiting Eastern Nazarene College, 62-50 on Tuesday evening in non-conference action. The Lasers pushed their record to 4-5 for the season, while ENC slipped to 3-5 with the loss.

Alexis Chappell (Springfield, Mass.) led all scorers with 13 points for Lasell, and Danielle Autencio (Montville, Conn.) tallied her fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 15 rebounds, also adding five assists and three steals. Kayla Vincelette (Westport, Mass.) and Katie Stopera (Hollis, N.H.) each chipped in with 10 points for Lasell as Vincelette recorded a game-high four blocked shots.

Ruby Leon (Fairfield, Calif.) was the only ENC player in double digits with 11 points and Michelle Herrera (Santa Barbara, Calif.) finished with nine points. Christina Saint-Pierre (Lantana, Fla.) grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to go with her five points.

The two teams played a back-and-forth opening half, with Lasell having the biggest lead of the first 20 minutes at 12-8, but ENC buried consecutive three pointers bookending a pair of Vincelette free throws to tie the game at 14-14. A Saint-Pierre layup and a trifecta from Leon gave the Lions a 26-24 lead that the Lasers cut to 26-25 heading into intermission. The Lions only converted 26.4% of their shots in the first half, but offset the poor shooting by grabbing 11 offensive rebounds and connecting on 4-9 attempts from three point territory. Vincelette and Stopera paced the Lasell attack with eight and six points respectively in the opening 20 minutes.

The Lasers scored the first seven points of the second half to jump out to a 32-26 lead just over three minutes into the period. ENC responded by scoring seven of the next nine points to cut the hosts lead to 34-33 and then again at 36-35. The Lasers scored eight straight points to build a 44-35 advantage with less than ten minutes to play and withstood several charges from the visitors down the stretch. ENC cut the Lasell lead to three at 48-45 on a three pointer by Herrera with 6:09 remaining in the game, but Lasell closed on a 14-5 run including eight points from the line to close out the victory.

Eastern Nazarene will be back on the court on January 2^nd when they host Maine-Presque Isle in a non-conference match-up. Lasell will wrap up their first semester schedule with a pair of non-conference road games, visiting Wentworth on Thursday December 12^th at 7:00 p.m. before heading to Plymouth State for a Saturday December 14^th date at 1:00 p.m.