Women's Basketball Starts Off Conference Play with Win

WESTON, Mass. - Regis College put up its highest scoring total of the season in an 81-72 victory over Elms College in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) women's basketball contest Saturday afternoon at Higgins Court.

Courtney Doherty (Willimantic, Conn.) led the Pride with 24 points, the highest scoring output of her career, while Madi Zancan (Cumberland, R.I.) added 18 points and three blocks on 8-for-13 shooting from the field. Pam Gonzalez (Revere, Mass.) earned the double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Valerie Whalen (Stoughton, Mass.) contributed nine points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds.

A layup by Doherty kicked off a nine-point scoring run to start off the game for the Pride, capped off by a layup by Zancan. Regis ended the first quarter leading by eight points thanks to another Zancan layup. Doherty jumpstarted the Pride offense again in the second quarter, hitting a three-pointer to start the period as Regis fended off the visiting Blazers, who managed to cut the deficit to only six points by halftime.

A layup by Mikayler Patch early in the third quarter put Elms within four points of Regis, 45-41, but Doherty once again came through for the Pride, hitting two layups and a three-pointer to put Regis up by 11 by the end of the quarter. Both teams scored 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Pride coasted to their first win of the season.

Four Elms players had double-digit scoring performances with Patch and Rahmia Johnston both finishing with 15 points. Kayla Jackson scored 14 points on the night while Sarah Evangelista went 4-for-7 from three-point range to finish with 12 points.

The Pride outshot the visitors with a shooting percentage of 43.6 percent compared to Elms's 31.9 percent. Regis also outrebounded the visitors by a margin of 52-44 while committing two fewer turnovers. Regis owned the paint, scoring 56 points in the paint compared to only 26 for Elms.

Regis College (1-4, 1-0 GNAC) returns to play Monday, Dec. 5, for a non-conference home game against WPI beginning at 7:00 p.m. Elms College (3-3, 0-1 GNAC) hosts St. Joseph (Conn.) Wednesday, Dec. 7, starting at 5:00 p.m.