Women's Basketball Advances to NE-10 Semis with 82-57 Win Over Saint Michael's on Tuesday
Five Ravens score in double-figures
RINDGE, N.H. (March 1, 2011) – The Franklin Pierce
University women’s basketball team opened post-season play
Tuesday with an 82-57 win over Saint Michael’s in the
quarterfinals of the 2011 Northeast-10 Conference playoffs in The
Fieldhouse in Rindge. The second-seeded Ravens improved to 23-6,
while the seventh-seeded Purple Knights closed out their campaign
with a strong 16-11 mark.
With the win, Franklin Pierce advances to the NE-10 semifinals, where they will face third-seeded Assumption on Friday night at 7 p.m. in The Fieldhouse in Rindge. The two teams met once in the regular season with the Ravens pulling out a 75-72 win in Worcester back on Jan. 19. A win on Friday night would send the Ravens back to the NE-10 finals for the third-straight season.
Five Ravens scored in double-figures in the quarterfinal victory over Saint Michael’s, including junior center Jewel White (Worcester, Mass.), who had 20 points, eight rebounds, a career-high five blocks and three assists. The impressive performance came just days after she was named the NE-10 Player of the Year, while also earning a spot on the conference’s first-team.
Classmate Marielle Giroud (Martigny, Switzerland), who just a few days ago as well was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, chipped in with 19 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two assists.
Sophomore Tiffany Johnson (St. Albans, Vt.) added 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor, while also totaling six rebounds, two steals and two assists. Freshman guard Brittany Martelle (Brookfield, Conn.) bombed in a trio of three-pointers as she totaled 13 points, and sophomore Amanda Saab (Windham, N.H.) added 10 points, six assists, three steals and three boards.
Marilyn Ferreira paced St. Mike’s offensive attack with 18 points, while also swiping five steals. Mandy Scott came off the bench to add 13 points.
Franklin Pierce owned a commanding 42-27 advantage on the boards,
as seven of the eight Ravens that played pulled down multiple
rebounds. Franklin Pierce’s offensive attack benefited from
strong perimeter passing as freshman guard Kate McDonald
(Fall River, Mass.) dished out a career-high tying six
assists. Overall, the Ravens assisted on 22 of their 29 shots made.
The Ravens shot 48 percent (29-of-60) from the field, while holding
the Purple Knights to just 35 percent shooting (17-of-49).
Despite the strong numbers, Franklin Pierce did come out of the gates sluggish and found itself trailing 23-19 with 8:18 remaining in the first half.
The Ravens, though, buckled down on the defensive end and forced St. Mike’s into a couple of turnovers, which Franklin Pierce quickly converted into points. The Ravens responded by scoring nine-straight points to take a 28-23 lead with 4:15 left in the half. Giroud scored six of those points, while Johnson added a layup. That 9-0 run was part of Franklin Pierce’s 17-6 surge to close out the first half and take a 36-29 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The strong offensive play late in the stanza carried over into the second half as the Ravens raced out to a 14-point lead a little more than five minutes in. Johnson hit back-to-back layups during the stretch as Franklin Pierce built a 51-37 lead.
White laid in a basket moments later and Martelle followed by knocking down one of her triples to extend the Ravens’ advantage out to 17 at 59-42 with 12:19 remaining.
Ferreira tried to counter for the Purple Knights by scoring five-consecutive points to bring Saint Michael’s to within 12 at 59-47 with 10:56 to go. It seemed that St. Mike’s had started to get back into the game, but those thoughts were quickly erased with an ensuing 7-0 run by the Ravens to grab a commanding 66-47 edge with 9:33 remaining. Giroud sparked it with a layup, Martelle added to it with another deep trey and White capped it with a layup of her own.
Franklin Pierce would push its lead out to more than 20 points just minutes later and would lead by as many as 25 late in sealing the victory.
The victory was also Franklin Pierce’s 16th post-season triumph in the last 18 games (including NE-10 and NCAA Tournaments). Overall, Franklin Pierce has won 78 of its last 88 games overall, which spans parts of the last three seasons.
For more information on Franklin Pierce women’s basketball, please visit the team’s page at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceAthletics).