Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team scored the first 16 points of the game and went on to an 86-48 victory over Nichols College in the opening round of its own 36th annual tournament Saturday afternoon at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Eastern moves into the championship game for the 32nd time and will meet Bridgewater State University, which emerged with a 60-56 victory over Regis College (MA) in a game which was tied seven times and which had 15 lead changes.
Eastern will be shooting for its 19th tournament championship Saturday at 3 p.m. while the Bears will be participating in their first final after losing their tournament opener to Wesleyan University, 61-42, in their only previous appearance, in 2004.
Regis, which led by five points with eight minutes left against Bridgewater, faces Nichols College Sunday at 1 p.m. in the third-place game.
Warriors Get Out Quickly
Eastern scored the first 16 points against Nichols, which missed its first 12 shots and turned the ball over five times on its first 17 possession. The Bison broke through with two minutes left in the first quarter and trailed 41-9 at halftime.
Eleven Eastern players either had a point or rebound, with senior forward Jill Ritrosky (Pittsfield, MA) scoring 13 points to move to within ten of becoming the 16th player in program history to score 1,000 collegiate points. She also had 12 rebounds in 24 minutes to improve her career rebounding average to 9.6
Junior forward Lexis Foster (Groton) had her first career double-double with career-highs of 19 points and ten rebounds, sinking 7-of-8 field goals and converting all five of her free throws.
Senior post player Erin Brooks (Billerica, MA) came off the bench to produce the team's third double-double of the game with 11 points and 11 rebounds and senior guard Victoria Pfohl (Trumbull) handed out a career-high eight assists.
Junior guard Taylor Daniels led Nichols with 17 points, sophomore forward Brooke Packard adding 13 points. Junior forward Julia Zawacki led the Bison with six rebounds.
Bears Claw Back Against Regis
In a game where Regis led for 25 minutes, Bridgewater sophomore guard Jennifer Whyte hit a key three-point field goal with just over a minute left after missing 13 of her first 17 shots that pushed Bridgeater ahead for good, 56-54. After Regis missed a three-pointer on its next possession, senior guard Vanesa Conceicao nailed a pair of free throws to make it 58-54 with 38 seconds left.
After Regis junior forward Amanda Hawkesworth dropped in a layup with 3:26 left that gave the Pride a 53-52 lead, Regis did not score from the floor over the final 3:26. The Pride could not connect on either of their final (three-point) shots after Whyte's go-ahead three-pointer with 1:13 left.
Regis's astounding 66-26 advantage in rebounding was offset by 27 turnovers which translated into 24 points for Bridgewater.
Junior forward Chanelle Melton led Bridgewater with 16 points (8-for-17 from the floor), Whyte adding 15 points, and junior guard Chelsea Saucier chipping in 11 points. Conceicao missed ten of 13 shots from the floor but finished with nine points, seven assists and three blocked shots in 33 minutes off the bench.
Hawkesworth of Regis led all players with 21 points and also collected nine rebounds, three assists and three steals. Sophomore forward Brittany Stone had a game-high 14 rebounds to go along with eight points and freshman guard Miah Andrews grabbed nine rebounds (with five points) in 15 minutes off the bench. Eight of Andrews' rebounds came in the second half.
