WBB: Lasers Fall in Final Regular Season Contest at Elms

Chicopee, MA - The Lasell women's basketball team traveled to Elms College on Saturday afternoon to play in their final regular season game of the 2024-25 campaign. 

The Lasers coming in held a 6-7 conference record with Elms having a 5-8 record. Each team needed a victory to establish their final positioning ahead of the GNAC Playoffs this coming week. 

Blaize Mack opened up the scoring on the afternoon with a bucket inside off a feed from Shirle Major. Both teams were finding the basket in the opening minutes and each team held slight leads. This was until the Lasers who were down 8-9, strung together a 12-3 run for the remainder of the first quarter and took a 20-12 lead into the second. In the second quarter, the Lasers continued their run by scoring the first 7 points of the period and extending their lead to 27-12. In the middle of the second, the lead would mount to as many as 16, but the Blazers were able to cut the Laser lead down to 12 going into halftime. 

The start of the second half saw the Blazers quickly climb back into the game with an early 9-0 run. This made the game 34-31, and just a few minutes later the game was tied at 39-39. After the Blazers then took a brief two-point lead, Blaize Mack scored the last 7 points for the Lasers in the quarter which regained them the advantage 46-45. In the fourth quarter, the game remained very tightly contested much like the opening minutes. Neither team was able to get much momentum offensively and the score was knotted at 52-52 with only 3 minutes left to play. The two teams then exchanged 5-0 runs where the Blazers went up 57-52, for the Lasers to match it seconds later with a Shirle Major 3-pointer and Blaize Mack jumper. Elms was then able to regain the lead on a second-chance layup, 59-57. Laura Johnson split a pair of free throws on the next trip down for the Lasers and would start the foul game which the Blazers eventually won by sinking their final four free throws and took the 63-58 win. 

Blaize Mack tied for a game-high 18 points on the day and Shirle Major was the other Laser in double figures with 11. Laura Johnson who had 11 rebounds on the day finished the season with 11.4 rebounds per game which puts her first on the list for single-season rebound per-game average for the program. 

Up Next - Both teams are now slated for a rematch in the GNAC Play-In Tournament on Monday. Elms with the win jumped to the #8 seed and Lasell fell to the #9 seed which gave Elms the home court. They will play at 5 PM on Monday evening.