Ravens down Assumption 90-75 in the semifinals on Friday night

BOXSCORE                                           

RINDGE, N.H. (March 4, 2011) – Junior center Jewel White (Worcester, Mass.) tossed in a career-high and Northeast-10 Conference Tournament record 42 points to lead the Franklin Pierce University women’s basketball team to a thrilling 90-75 win over Assumption on Friday in the semifinals of the 2011 Northeast-10 Tournament at The Fieldhouse in Rindge. The second-seeded Ravens improved to 24-6, while third-seeded Assumption dipped to 21-7.

With the win, Franklin Pierce advanced to the NE-10 championship game for the third-consecutive season, as the Ravens will face top-seeded and No. 17-nationally ranked Bentley on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Dana Center in Waltham, Mass. Franklin Pierce has won the tournament championship each of the past two seasons, and a win on Sunday would allow the Ravens to lock up the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. The Ravens and Falcons will be meeting in the NE-10 finals for the second time in the last three seasons, as Franklin Pierce pulled out a 93-81 win in the 2009 title game in Rindge.

Franklin Pierce advanced to Sunday’s game on the strength of White’s amazing performance Friday night against the Greyhounds, who hail from her hometown of Worcester, Mass.

White scored the 42 points on an impressive 14-of-19 shooting from the field, while also going a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line. She also grabbed 14 rebounds to log a double-double in the game, while also handing out a season-high three assists.

White’s 42 points were just five shy of Sheila Lindsey’s school-record 47 points in a game versus Castleton State back on Feb. 22, 1986. White’s total did best the NE-10 tournament record of Stonehill’s Michelle Doonan, who held the previous mark of 37 points in a game versus Saint Anselm back on March 5, 1994.

She scored 20 of Franklin Pierce’s first 25 points in the game as the Ravens took a 25-21 lead with 8:00 left in the first half. White did an outstanding job of establishing position in the low-post to get easy layups. She also benefited from some great passing by her teammates, including four assists apiece from sophomore guard Tiffany Johnson (St. Albans, Vt.) and junior forward Marielle Giroud (Martigny, Switzerland).

Giroud’s passing was just one important facet of her game on Friday night as she did an outstanding job defensively in holding Assumption’s Kelly Meredith, the NE-10’s leading scorer, to just four points on 1-of-4 shooting from the floor. Meredith had entered Friday night’s contest tops in the league in scoring with an impressive average of 19.9 points a game. Giroud also had 10 rebounds in the game, including nine on the defensive end, while also chipping in with 12 points on the offensive side to tally a double-double.

Giroud added a layup following White’s strong offensive play to push Franklin Pierce’s lead out to 27-21, and minutes later Johnson would lay in a basket to extend the advantage out to 10 at 36-26. The basket was two of Johnson’s 12 points in the game, as she has averaged 13.0 points over the first NE-10 playoff games this season.

The teams traded baskets late as the Ravens took a 38-30 lead into the locker room at halftime. White had 20 points and seven boards in the first 20 minutes, as the Ravens shot 56 percent (15-of-27) from the floor, while limiting Assumption to just 38 percent shooting (12-of-32).

Franklin Pierce continued its hot shooting in the second half, and a little more than four minutes into the stanza, built a 47-35 advantage following a pair of free throws from White.

From there, Franklin Pierce would not let its lead slip below double-digits the rest of the way. Freshman guard Brooke Coderre (Woonsocket, R.I.), who had 13 points in the game (including 8-of-8 from the charity stripe), tossed in three of those points with a deep three-pointer with 9:49 left to give the Ravens a healthy 63-45 lead. The lead would grow even larger moments later following a Johnson basket to make it 71-51 Franklin Pierce.

Assumption tried to rally and did pull to within 10 points on multiple occasions late, but each time Franklin Pierce would convert its free throws to extend the lead and seal the win.

The Ravens were amazing at the free throw line all night as they converted and eye-popping 35-of-36 attempts for a 97.2-percent clip. That percentage also set a new Northeast-10 Tournament record, besting the old mark of 93.8-percent set by Bentley versus Stonehill back on March 1, 1997.

For more information on Franklin Pierce women’s basketball, please visit the team’s page at 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).