WESTON, Mass. – Regis College improved to a perfect 8-0 in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) and grabbed its fifth-straight win with a 61-33 victory over Southern Vermont College on Thursday night in women's basketball action. The Pride move to 11-4 overall with the win, while the Mountaineers fall to 4-11 and 2-6 in the NECC.
Taylor Bunkley (Carmel, N.Y.) scored the first basket of the game for the Pride, but Southern Vermont's Sarah McDonald (Cohoes, N.Y.) and Amber Flagg (Windsor, Conn.) answered to give the Mountaineers an early 4-2 lead. After Janaya Bradley (New Haven, Conn.) tied the game at 4-4, McDonald went on a personal 5-0 run to give SVC a 9-4 advantage with 13:04 to play in the opening half. The Pride answered with a 15-0 run over the next six-plus minutes of action, helped by four points apiece from Bradley and Claire Ramonas (Portland, Maine), to take a 19-9 lead.
Kala MacKenzie (Fair Haven, Vt.) ended the run with a layup and later cut the deficit to nine with a jumper to make it a 20-13 ballgame. A quick 5-0 spurt from the Pride put the Crimson and Gold back on top by 12, and the lead never fell below 10 as Regis entered the break leading 28-15.
Janaya Bradley led Regis at the half with eight points and five rebounds, while Ramonas added five points in the opening stanza. Sarah McDonald led SVC with nine points and four rebounds to go with four points, six rebounds, and three blocks from Kala MacKenzie.
In the second half, the Pride stretched their lead to 23 points following a Taylor Bunkley fastbreak layup that forced a Southern Vermont timeout with 15:29 to play. The Mountaineers chipped away, and following an Amber Dow (Panton, Vt.) freethrow, back-to-back buckets from Amber Flagg left the Mountaineers trailing 40-24 with 9:33 remaining.
SVC's Mariah Anthony (Northfield, Mass.) kept it a 16 point game minutes later with her first basket of the game, but the Pride ended the half on a 19-7 run to come away with the 61-33 victory.
Janaya Bradley scored 12 points and added seven rebounds, two assists, and three steals in the win. Alyssa Vieira-Lanpher (Princeton, Mass.) connected on a pair of three pointers en route to a career-high 12 points and six rebounds. Emilee Marro chipped in 10 points, five rebounds, and five assists, while Claire Ramonas had nine points, six rebounds, and five steals. Teresa Busiek (Arlington, Mass.) grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for the Pride.
Sarah McDonald led Southern Vermont with 13 points and seven rebounds. Amber Flagg joined her in double-digits with 11 points, while Kala MacKenzie finished the night with four points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Pride dominated the glass, outrebounding the Mountaineers 58-42, and committing only 16 turnovers to SVC's 25. Regis turned those into 21 points, and had 26 offensive rebounds in the game which led to 36 points in the paint and 14 second chance points.
For the second straight game, the Pride struggled from the field, shooting only 23-of-77 (29.9%), that included a 3-for-23 showing from beyond the arc. Regis only mustered 28% shooting from the floor in Tuesday night's win over Wheelock and has now been held below 30% shooting in two-straight games for the first time since 2010 when the Pride dropped back-to-back games against Babson College (23.5%) and Bates College (28.8%).
Both teams return to action on Saturday afternoon as the Pride travel to Becker College for a 1:00 p.m. NECC contest, while SVC returns home for a 1:00 p.m. tilt against Daniel Webster College.