WESTON, Mass. – Amanda Hawkesworth (Abington, Mass.) recorded her second double-double of the season by scoring a game-high 22 points while also adding a contest-high 11 rebounds as the Regis College Women's Basketball team defeated New England Collegiate Conference foe Wheelock College 78-55 Thursday night on Higgins Court. With the victory, the Pride improve to 4-1, 2-0 NECC on the young campaign and with the loss the Wildcats fall to 2-4, 1-1 NECC.
The Pride have improved to a perfect 8-0 against Wheelock since the two squads first met in 2007 and Regis continued their dominance during conference play by capturing their 56 straight regular game against NECC opponents.
Wheelock kept the game close for the majority of the first half of play as the teams traded buckets with each other. The Wildcats held the lead for only a few minutes of the contest, Michelle Woods (Wilmington, Mass.) converted two free throws during the 17:53 mark to increase Wheelock's advantage to 4-2 with a lot of the second half remaining. After the Pride went on a mini scoring run, the Wildcats cut the deficit to one point as Jamie Grzych (Columbia, Conn.) found Woods open at the top of the elbow and she drained the bucket. Amanda Hawkesworth then responded for Regis by hitting a jump shot from the paint and the Pride lead increased.
Next, freshman guard Emma Silver (Clochester, Conn.), drained two free throws that once again cut the Wildcats deficit to one point, 14-13 with 12:13 remaining. The Crimson & Gold then scored five straight to increase the lead to 19-13 with 9:53 left. Wheelock then answered the Pride with an 8-0 run of their own which was capped off by two three-balls from Grzych to give Wheelock their first lead since the 17:53 mark. This ended up being the Wildcats last lead of the contest as the Pride rattled off a 15-6 run and head into the half with a 36-27 advantage.
Regis put the game away early in the second half as they continued to score by using a 24-5 run to their advantage over 10 minutes of play. After a turnover by Alexandra Downey (Mansfield, Mass.), Regis senior guard Janaya Bradley (New Haven, Conn.) missed a jumper that was then kept alive by teammate Linsay Bumila (Raynham, Mass.) who then kicked it to Teresa Busiek (Arlington, Mass.) who then found an open Mikayla Murphy (Attleboro, Mass.) who buried a three that gave the Pride a 28 point advantage.
Amanda Hawkesworth did most of her damage during the second half as she shot an efficient 4-of-6 from the field and made three out of her four free throw attempts. She also gobbled up nine of her 11 rebounds in the second stanza while also scoring half of her 22 points. Brittany Stone (W. Bridgewater, Mass.) and Janaya Bradley also added double digits by scoring 13 and 11 points respectively. Stone also gobbled up seven rebounds as Bradley secured six, she also dished out a game-high seven assists as well. Leading the way for the Wildcats was Michelle Woods who scored a game-best 22 points while securing nine rebounds. Jamie Grzych chipped in 16 points on 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc.
The Crimson & Gold will now enjoy the holiday break before they head out to Keene, N.H. and play William Patterson during the second game of the Keene State Holliday Tournament on December 30th with game-time slated for 3:00 p.m. The Wildcats have two more games before the break as they host Bay Path College on Saturday with tip-off set for 4:00 p.m.