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Freshman Kristen McWhirter scored a career-high 17 points in No. 13 Stonehill's 87-75 win over Bryant Tuesday night. |
North Easton, Mass. - No. 13 Stonehill used a record-setting night from the charity stripe to collect its eight straight win, an 87-75 decision over visiting Bryant on Tuesday evening at Merkert Gymnasium.
The Skyhawks went to the line 45 times, converting 38 of their tries, eclipsing the school mark of 43 set by the 1991-92 edition in a 90-61 win over St. Michael's January 21, 1992.
Junior Kelsey Simonds (Middleboro, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) led the parade to the free throw line, going 17-for-19 en route to tying her career-high with 27 points. Simonds, who made five of her ten field goal attempts, also added eight rebounds, five blocks and three assists.
After the Bulldogs raced out to an 8-0 lead, the Skyhawks, who opened the game missing their first three shots and committing three turnovers, forced the ball inside, causing Bryant to get into early foul trouble.
Already the best free throw shooting team in the Northeast-10, Stonehill made their trips count in the first half, making 16-of-18.
They eventually forged ahead for the first time following a three-pointer from freshman Kristen McWhirter (Melvin Village, N.H./The New Hampton School) at the 7:34 mark of the first half.
The game would be tied four times and the lead would change hands seven more times as the half wound down.
Stonehill scored the final two baskets of the half, one a twisting, reverse layup from Simonds, the other a smooth basket by senior Meghan Driscoll (Bridgewater, Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham) off a feed from Simonds, to take a 36-33 lead at intermission.
After shooting just 34 percent from the field in the first half, the Skyhawks connected on half of their 24 second half attempts, including a 5-for-12 performance from behind the arc in the final 20 minutes.
Bryant had a 55-50 lead with less than 10 minutes to go, but Stonehill ran off seven unanswered capped by a Daryl Cioffi (New Milford, N.J./Immaculate Heart) jumper with 6:55 to go.
A short jumper from Cara Johnson evened the score at 57, but the Skyhawks ran off nine of the next ten points, with five coming from McWhirter, to close the door on the Bulldogs.
Bryant held sizeable advantages in shots taken (67-50), rebounds (44-37) and points in the paint (30-18), but Stonehill swatted away a season-high 10 shots and made 85 percent of their free throws compared to the Bulldogs 15-for-26 showing at the line.
Erika Stupinski (Topsham, Maine/Mount Ararat) went to the line 10 times for Stonehill, and finished with 15 points, nine assists and five rebounds.
Driscoll, who had a combined 11 points in her previous three contests, totaled 11 points, four rebounds and two blocks in an effective 18 minutes of action.
Cioffi recorded her second double digit effort in her last four games, ending with 12 points and two assists.
McWhirter went 4-for-7 from behind the arc and finished with a career-high 17 off the bench.
Lynne-Ann Kokoski led Bryant with 25 points, six assists and four rebounds, while Courtney Schermerhorn added 16 points and Siamone Bennett chipped in with 10 points and four rebounds.
At 21-4 overall and 17-3 in the Northeast-10, the Skyhawks can claim a share of the Conference regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Northeast-10 Tournament with a win in either of its two final games.
Stonehill returns to action on Saturday in their final regular season home game of the season, a 1:30 p.m. tip off against Merrimack.