Gulls Upset Top Seeded Nor'easters for Trip to CCC Championship

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BIDDEFORD, Maine –The Endicott women's basketball team shocked the \#1 seeded University of New England Thursday night to book a trip to the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) tournament finals. Fourth seeded Endicott used a gritty road effort to emerge from a hostile environment with a 53-49 victory and a spot in the championship game for the third time in school history.

Endicott, who improves to 17-10 on the season, is looking to deliver the first women's basketball championship in school history.  

Samantha Crough (Cohasset, Mass.) and Nicole Heffernan (Londonderry, N.H.) each had 11 points to lead the Gulls offensively and Jennifer White (Lisbon, N.H.) grabbed 11 rebounds and had four steals.

Endicott held the Nor'easters to just 23.9% shooting from the field and had five different players record blocks, four of them in the second half, a period in which UNE shot just 7-35 and went over seven minutes without a bucket in the early going.

Despite holding UNE scoreless, the Gulls were unable to build their lead significantly during the early stretch in the second half. Endicott led by 6 six points, 41-35 on a jumper by Jen McBrien (Medfield, Mass.) with twelve and a half minutes to play but UNE would tie the game at 43 on a layup by Kelly Paradis (Newport, Maine) and two free-throw shots by Suggs. Paradis and Suggs were the scoring leaders for the top seeded Nor'easters, each contributing 14 points, with Suggs grabbing a monster 18 boards for the UNE team that had a 53-37 rebound advantage, including a 25-5 edge on the offensive glass, which made up for poor shooting all night.

Endicott battled back with a three-point play converted by Julie Manning (Hull, Mass.) and then took a four-point lead at 49-45 when Heffernan sunk her third three-pointer of the game.

Field goals were sparse down the stretch as both teams played solid defense in the final ten minutes of the game. A jumper by Jordan Ferland (Charlestown, N.H.) gave Endicott their biggest lead of the game again, a six point advantage at 51-45 with under three minutes to play.

Endicott's defense was stellar when it needed to be, again keeping UNE off the scoreboard for significant time. A pair of free-throws by Paradis that cut the Endicott lead to four with 56 seconds left were the first points for UNE since the 6:50 minute mark of the second half, but Crough sunk her two attempts from the charity stripe to put the game out of reach for UNE.

After leading 9-8 early on, the Gulls trailed by as many as five points in the first half but used a 15-3 run to get themselves back into the game.

Liz Leblanc (Jay, Maine) sunk a three-pointer with 10:45 to play in the half to put the Nor'easters up 14-9. Heffernan's first of two three-pointers cut the score to 18-16 in favor of the hosts, but with just under seven minutes, a Margo Russell (Madison, Maine) layup reinstated the five point UNE lead at 21-14.

From there the Gulls began their 15-3 run, which was kicked off by a Crough jumper and three-pointer from the corner by White. The Gulls reclaimed the lead at 24-23 on a Crough free-throw and extended it when Heffernan hit her second shot from downtown with one and a half minutes to play in the half.

Heffernan led the Gulls with eight points in the first period on a perfect 3-3 shooting, including 2-2 from downtown. The Gulls shot 44% from the field before the half and hit 4-8 from behind the three-point line.

The Nor'easters shot just 27% from both the field and downtown in the first half, but made up for it by edging Endicott 10-4 on the offensive glass. Through the first 11 minutes of play, UNE had a 7-0 advantage on the offensive boards.
Seven players scored for each team in the first half, with UNE led by six each from Beth Suggs (Bath, Maine) and LeBlanc. Suggs also grabbed eight rebounds in the first half, four each on the offensive and defensive ends.

Freshman Kayleen Whall (Foxboro, Mass.) dished out five assists for Endicott and grabbed six boards, while Heffernan collected seven rebounds and three helpers herself.

The Gulls will travel to the winner of the game between \#2 Salve Regina and \#3 Western New England. Saturday's final will tip off at 2:00 pm.

The Nor'easters record falls to 22-5 after dropping just two conference games all year.