WESTON, Mass. – Led by double-doubles from forwards Brittany Stone (W. Bridgewater, Mass.) and Amanda Hawkesworth (Abington, Mass.) the Regis College women's basketball team defeated non-conference opponent Suffolk University 51-41 during the Pride's home opener on Thursday evening. With the victory, the Crimson and Gold improve to 2-1 on the season and the setback drops the Rams to 2-1 on the season.
Stone scored a game-high 14 points and corralled 12 caroms while Hawkesworth tallied 11 points and a game-high 13 boards.
The Pride outscored the visitors 14-4 in the opening frame and stifled the Rams offense, holding them to 6-of-34 (17.6%) shooting in the first half of play.
Regis started the contest strong in the first quarter as they jumped out to an early 5-0 advantage as Shannon Hayes (Billerica, Mass.) connected on one of her five first half field goals from the elbow. Hayes gave the Crimson and Gold their biggest lead, a 12 point advantage after she buried a three-ball to increase the Pride lead 14-2.
Suffolk tallied their first field goal late in the first stanza as Alexandra Nagri (Salem, N.H.) converted a jumper from the corner to cut the deficit to 14-4 heading into the second quarter.
The Pride remained on top for the entire second period as a three-ball from senior guard Alyssa Lanpher (Princeton, Mass.) improved the Regis lead to nine points, 17-8 with 7:37 left in the half. Suffolk cut the lead back down to four on two separate occasions the first when Georgia Bourikas (Hull, Mass.) buried a three ball and the second when Alexandra Nagri converted a layup in the paint. An Amanda Hawkesworth freebie increased the Pride lead to five, 22-17 heading into the intermission.
Brittany Stone shot more efficiently in the second half as she connected on 6-of-8 from the field for 14 points.
Amanda Hawkesworth was fed a beautiful pass from Mikayla Murphy (Attleboro, Mass.) for an easy layup to begin the start of the third period, but Rams junior guard Kelsey Schiebel (Windham, N.H.) took over the game as she connected on a three-ball, a jumper and another three pointer to give the visitors their first lead of the contest.
Mikayla Murphy matched Schiebel's three-ball with one of her own to tie up the game at 27 all with 5:38 to go, but Schiebel responded with her third trey of the quarter to regain the three point advantage for the Rams.
Regis took back the lead when Hawkesworth split a pair of free throws and Brittany Stone made a layup underneath to give Regis the 33-30 lead before Schiebel continued her hot long range shooting with another three pointer to knot up the score at 33-33 with 3:01 left. Stone finished the quarter off with all six of the Regis points as the Crimson and Gold ended the third period with a 39-35 lead.
Schiebel finished her impressive third quarter with 14 points, on 5-of-6 shooting including 4-of-5 from long range.
The Crimson and Gold's defense stiffened up in the final 10 minutes of play allowing only six points on 3-of-15 shooting and never trailed as they closed out the contest.
Shannon Hayes scored 11 points for the Pride while Mikayla Murphy had a sold all around game scoring six points, dishing out a game-high nine assists and recorded six rebounds.
Regis returns to the court on Tuesday as they welcome non-conference opponent Western Connecticut State University to Weston for a 7:00 p.m. contest while Suffolk ships back to Boston for their home opener against Colby-Sawyer on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.