Endicott Upset Bid Falls Short Against Nationally Ranked Emmanuel

BEVERLY, Mass. – Looking for their first win over Emmanuel in program history, the Endicott women's basketball team fought tooth and nail but came up just short in a 65-62 defeat on Tuesday night in non-conference action at MacDonald Gymnasium.

With the 2012 portion of their schedule complete, Endicott will enter the new year with a 6-2 record. The Saints, ranked 18^th in the latest USA Today Poll  and 20^th in the most recent D3Hoops.com Top 25 poll, improves to 8-1 on the season and runs their program record against Endicott to 16-0.

Jennifer White (Lisbon, N.H.) led the Gulls with 16 points on 4-7 shooting and 2-4 from the three-point line.

Emmanuel senior forward Fiona O'Dwyer (Stamford, Conn.) led all players with 22 points, just over her season average of 20.0, and 15 rebounds, collecting her fourth double-double of the year. O'Dwyer went 9-18 from the floor and was a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line, helping a Saints team that shot just under 45% from the field for the game.

The Saints used an 11-0 run to open up a 13-4 lead through the first seven minutes of play, but Endicott was able to tie the game at 17 before Emmanuel's Liz Daley (Sharon, Mass.) helped her team climb back in front. Daley was perfect in the first half, 4-4 from the field, 2-2 from downtown and 3-3 from the free-throw line for 13 points and the Saints led 31-23 with 4:30 left to play in the half. Daley would go on to score 20 points in the contest and lead the Saints with 5 assists.

That was the last time the visitors would score before the break, however, as Endicott used a 13-0 run to end the half ahead 35-31. The run included a three-pointer by Kayleen Whall (Foxboro, Mass.) and three free-throws by White who fouled on an attempt from downtown. Whall came off the bench to score 13 points for the Gulls while grabbing six rebounds.

Emmanuel again came out firing in the second half, needing less than six minutes to reclaim an eight point lead thanks to multiple jumpers by O'Dwyer and Jennifer Bujnowski (Salem, N.H.), who had twelve points in the game.

Senior captain Jen McBrien (Medfield, Mass.) and the Gulls did not fade, and several fast breaks led by McBrien, who had eight assists in the contest to lead all players, helped the Gulls tie the game at 54 with under nine minutes remaining.

Junior forward Samantha Crough (Cohasset, Mass.), the final Gull in double figures with 12 points, gave Endicott the lead again with a layup with just over a minute to play, but O'Dwyer answered seconds later and Emmanuel got a big stop down the stretch on a steal by Laura Benvenuto (Wyckoff, N.J.), one of her game-high three thefts.

Each team was 12-28 in the first half, good for a 42.9% from the floor. The Gulls cooled off after the break, however, shooting 35.7% in the second half, while Emmanuel improved to 45%, though the Gulls did shoot 5-12 (41%) from downtown in the contest, with the Saints going just 2-8.

White led the Gulls with seven boards, while Daley grabbed eight rebounds for Emmanuel, who bested the hosts 39-29 on the glass. Crough had a pair of blocks for the Blue and Green, as did Bujnowski and O'Dwyer for the Saints.

Endicott will not have to wait for very long after New Year's to play their next game, nor will they have to travel very far. The Gull's next contest is slated for January 2^nd at Salem State in a 5:30 pm North Shore Cup affair.

Emmanuel has even less time to wait before taking the court again, but considerably more distance to cover. The Saints are getting ready to travel to Thousand Oaks, California for games on December 30^th against UC Santa Cruz and December 31^st against the University of Scranton.