Box Score
GORHAM, Maine – Having lost all of its starters from last year's Little East Conference regular-season championship team, the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team features little experience this year – and even less experience in close games.
Playing its first tight game since an overtime victory over Lasell University in the season-opener a month ago, Eastern (3-6, 1-2 LEC) was unable to maintain a three-point lead in the final minute against homestanding University of Southern Maine (4-6, 2-1 LEC), losing its first game at the Warren Hill Gymnasium after eight straight wins Saturday afternoon.
In a game featuring the two most successful programs in Little East history, there were eight ties and nine lead changes, and neither team led by more than six points. Clinging to a three-point lead with just under a minute left, Eastern gave up a tying three-pointer, then turned the ball over after missing two inside attempts on its final possession that set up senior guard Tamrah Gould's winning basket in the final seconds. At just 5-feet-4 inches, Gould drove inside uncontested down the right side of the lane to put in the winning bucket.
Junior forward
Taylor Salato (East Haven) led Eastern in scoring (19 points) for the eighth time in nine games this year, and fell one rebound shy of her third double-double. First-year guard
Julia Knowles (Waterford) posted her first career double-double with career highs in points (12) and rebounds (game-high 11), while first-year point guard
Nevaeh Clark (Cromwell) added 17 points, five rebounds and five assists and only two turnovers in 36 minutes. Eastern's starters played all but 19 minutes of the game.
The Warriors played their fourth straight game without 5-foot-11 inch first-year forward
Alyssa Paquette (Claremont, NH), the squad's third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder.
Gould led four double-digit scorers for USM with 17 points (7-of-14 FG). Junior forward Jade Smedberg, who had tied the game with her three-pointer in the final minute, added ten points and eight rebounds.
Eastern faces Ohio Wesleyan University Dec. 17 in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
