Collins Scores Career-High 30 Points, Simonds And Roderigue Combine For 39 Points As Women's Basketball Shoots Lights Out In Eclipsing Century Mark For First Time In 10 Seasons With Northeast-10 Opening 101-59 Victory Over 11th-Ranked Bentley
November 22, 2005
STONEHILL WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Merkert Gymnasium, Easton, Mass.
FINAL:STONEHILL 101, BENTLEY 59
EASTON, Mass.-- Junior Alisha Collins (Port Chester, N.Y.) scored a career-high 30 points, while freshman Kelsey Simonds (Bridgewater, Mass.) registered her first career double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds as Stonehill eclipsed the century mark in scoring for the first time in over 10 years with a 101-59 Northeast-10 Conference women's basketball victory over 11th-ranked Bentley Tuesday evening at Merkert Gymnasium.
The host Skyhawks (4-0, 1-0 Northeast-10) continued their best start in four seasons and opened league play by jumping out to a 22-6 lead just 7:03 into the contest and expanding that advantage to 23 points (35-12) midway through the first half. Stonehill, which last scored 100 or more points in a game on January 24, 1995 in a 109-46 victory at Assumption, blistered the nets at a 68 percent clip in the opening 20 minutes of play and canned eight three-pointers en route to a 58-31 edge at the break.
The visiting Falcons (2-5, 0-1 Northeast-10) scored the first two baskets of the second half to cut their deficit back to 58-35, but the Skyhawks then used a 17-5 run over the next 5:28 to take a 75-40 lead, as the hosts' hot shooting continued in the final 20 minutes of action. Stonehill shot 56 percent in the second half from the field to lead by as many as 46 points in the closing minutes and canned all seven of its three-point attempts to finish with 15 treys, two shy of the school single-game record, as the Skyhawks shot 63 percent (35-56) from the floor overall, including 71 percent (15-21) from behind the arc, and added an 89 percent (16-18) performance at the foul line to snap an eight-game Bentley series win streak that dated back to November 2001.
Collins went 10-of-12 from the field and hit all seven of her free throws to finish with her career-best 30 point effort, while Simonds went 9-for-10 from the field and added four assists and three steals. Senior Bethany Roderigue (Winslow, Maine) added a career-high 18 points on a 6-of-7 effort from three-point range for Stonehill, which recorded 22 assists and held a 39-21 rebounding advantage (31-14 on the defensive side alone) in posting its largest margin of victory in 76 meetings with Bentley. All but one of the 13 Skyhawks who appeared in the contest scored at least one point, as sophomore Erika Stupinski (Topsham, Maine) added eight points and eight assists for the winners, who also received seven points and six rebounds from junior Caitlin Kennedy (Baldwin, N.Y.).
Junior Shannon Kirwan (Melrose, Mass.) was the lone player in double figures with the Falcons, as she scored 10 points and dished off five assists. Graduate student Carolyn Gottstein (Albany, N.Y.), senior Kate Kelley (Hull, Mass.) and sophomore Ashley Bruton (Guilford, Conn.) each added nine points for the visitors, as Bentley shot 39 percent from the field but connected on only 2-of-10 attempts from three-point range.
Stonehill hosts Saint Michael's in a Northeast-10 outing on Sunday afternoon at Merkert Gymnasium beginning at 1:30 p.m., while Bentley hosts LeMoyne in a Northeast-10 match-up on Sunday afternoon at the Dana Center in Waltham, Mass. at 1:30 p.m.