No. 18 Stonehill Opens New Year With Hawks

No. 18 Stonehill Opens New Year With St. Anselm

 

 

No. 18 Stonehill will play nine of its final 15 games at Merkert Gymnasium.

North Easton, Mass. - With the non-Conference schedule out of the way, the 18th ranked Skyhawks return to the hardwood for Wednesday evening's tilt with St. Anselm.

At 10-2 overall and 6-1 in the Northeast-10, Stonehill is tied with Franklin Pierce atop the Conference standings but holds the edge courtesy of a 68-58 win over the Ravens in early December.

A key for the Skyhawks is a favorable schedule down the stretch with nine of the final 15 games slated for the friendly confines of Merkert Gymnasium. Among those home dates are tilts against defending national champion, Southern Connecticut (1/22), UMass-Lowell (2/5) a team that took Stonehill to double overtime in late November and archrival Bentley (2/9).

The Skyhawks haven't seen game action since December 20 when they dispatched of Gannon, 73-52 in their second game of the Cruzin' Classic. In that contest, Stonehill got 12 points and 10 rebounds from Kelsey Simonds (Middleboro, Mass.) for her fifth double-double of the season. Simonds, who scored a game-high 20 points in a loss to tournament host, Barry University, was named to the Classic's all-tournament team.

Senior Erika Stupinski (Topsham, Maine) also enjoyed success in the Sunshine State, posting back-to-back games of 12 assists, the latter coming with 11 points for her first double-double of the season. Stupinski's 96 assists top the Northeast-10 (8.0 per game) and give her 391 for her career, good for ninth on the school's all-time list.

The Hawks, meanwhile are coming off a lopsided victory over New York Tech and stand at 4-7 overall. They are led by junior guard Rachel Reilly, who is averaging a team-best 13.1 points per game. Freshman Erin Higgins has started 10 of St. Anselm's 11 games is netting 12.3 every time out, while senior Cassaundra Thorpe is the first Hawk off the bench and is contributing 9.9 points in just 14 minutes per game.

The game, which tips at 5:30 p.m., can be seen via the internet at ww.ne10.tv and the audio broadcast can be heard by clicking the multimedia link on www.stonehillskyhawks.com.