Gulls Roll Through the Colonels, Cuddy Nabs 17 Points

BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's basketball team hosted Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) opponent Curry on Saturday evening. Sophomore Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) led the Gulls in scoring posting 17 points, just shy of her career high 19. The Blue and Green came out victorious over the Colonels with a final score of 78-47. Endicott improves to 17-6, (12-4 CCC) while Curry falls to 13-10, (9-7 CCC).

The first half was controlled by the Gulls as they held the Colonels to just 20 points while scoring 43 of their own. Cuddy and senior Julie Manning (Hull, Mass.) each earned 10 points while Manning also crashed the boards with six rebounds. The Blue and Green went perfect from the line whole holding Curry to just one trip to the charity stripe.

In the opening minutes Endicott went on an eight point run to take an early 10-2 lead. Junior Christina Deiorio (Stoughton, Mass.) broke the run with a quick jumper to get within six. Junior Kayleen Whall (Foxboro, Mass.) came in off the bench and answered Deiorio with back to back layups which was followed by a trey from Cuddy making it a 17-6 game.

Endicott carried on going on another run scoring 12 straight points led by Manning with six points. Junior Samantha Corcoran (Hampton, N.H.) would not let up as she came back with back to back jumpers. Junior Katelyn Wright (Sudbury, Mass.) hit a jumper from long range off a crisp pass from Manning to take an 18 point lead with 6:40 remaining in the first half. In the final minutes senior Samantha Crough (Cohasset, Mass) shot for six straight points followed by a couple good free throws from Cuddy to end the half on top 43-20.

The second half was a closer contest as the Colonels were only outscored by eight points with help from junior Kylie Beltz (Pequot Lakes, Minn.) who earned her career 1,000^th point at the 6:57 mark after going 2-2 from the charity stripe. The Gulls spread the wealth in the second half as every single player on the roster saw playing time.

To open up the half Crough hit her first jumper from long range of the night off a nice pass from senior Sarah Robinson (Norwich, Vt.). Deiorio answered back scoring six consecutive points making it a 52-26 score in Gulls favor.  Endicott went on to score seven unanswered points being topped off by an and-one by Cuddy in the paint.

The Colonels went on a small run starting at the 11 minute mark as they outscored the Blue and Green 14-6 with five minutes remaining in the game. Seniors Robinson and Shannon Quinn (Exeter, N.H.) would not let the dry spell for the Gulls last for long as they hit back to back jumpers from downtown to take a 71-44 lead. After three minutes of no points from either side freshman's Rasa Hamel (Barkhamstead, Conn.) and Francheska Ventura (Lawrence, Mass.) closed out the game with a combined five points to secure the 78-47 lead.

Endicott is now in a good spot in the CCC standings sitting at #3. The Gulls will take the court next on Tuesday February 18^th when they host Wentworth at 7:30 p.m. to celebrate Senior Day. In the last meeting between the two conference teams Endicott came out on top 67-44 back in January.