CHICOPEE, Mass. - Regis College continued its recent success, defeating Elms College, 71-59, Saturday afternoon in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) women's basketball action at the Maguire Center.
Madi Zancan (Cumberland, R.I.) led all scorers with 22 points, her third straight game scoring 20 points or more, while managing to grab seven rebounds. Pam Gonzalez (Revere, Mass.) inched closer to 1,000 career points with 13 on the night, putting her just 17 points away from the milestone. She also recorded seven rebounds. Courtney Doherty (Willimantic, Conn.) scored 12 points while dishing out six assists and Olivia Pacheco (Waterford, Conn.) added 10 points and seven rebounds coming off the bench.
The Pride roared out to a strong start, going on a 14-6 run to start the game with Gonzalez, Jordyn Striggles (Raynham, Mass), Valerie Whalen (Stoughton, Mass.), Doherty, and Zancan contributing to the run. Regis finished the quarter with an 8-1 run, bookended by layups from Pacheco, to put the visitors on top, 22-9, by the end of the first.
After Zancan scored the first two baskets of the second quarter, Elms strung together a 9-0 run before Erika Marinelli (Point Pleasant, N.J.) ended the Blazers' surge with a three-pointer to put the score at 29-19 in favor of the Pride halfway through the quarter. Zancan continued to pave the way for Regis, scoring two consecutive layups to end the quarter with the Pride up by 14 points (38-24).
A jumper by Pacheco late in the third quarter gave Regis a 17-point lead (52-35) but layups by Soliyana Asfaw and contributions by Kayla Jackson cut the Regis lead to 11 points (54-43) by the end of the period.
The Pride managed to keep the home team at bay in the fourth quarter, outscoring Elms by one (17-16) in the quarter with Gonzalez knocking down a three-pointer late in the game to put Regis up by 17 once again (69-52) with under four minutes remaining in regulation.
The Pride shot 46.3 percent (31-for-67) from the field compared to 35 percent (21-for-60) for Elms. Regis also managed to outrebound the Blazers by a margin of 46-32 while dominating in the paint, scoring 52 points in the region compared to just 26 for the home team.
Jackson was the leading scorer for Elms, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double. Asfaw added 11 points coming off the bench while Mikayler Patch and Sarah Evangelista finished with eight points each.
Regis College (7-9, 7-3 GNAC) finishes its stretch of road games Wednesday, Jan. 25, with a GNAC matchup against Norwich at 7:00 p.m. before finally returning home Saturday, Jan. 28, to take on another conference opponent in Johnson & Wales, with tip-off scheduled for 3:00 p.m.