Cold-Shooting Dooms No. 12 Skyhawks
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| Bethany Tighe led the way for the Skyhawks with nine points and eight rebounds. |
North Easton, Mass. - No. 12 Stonehill opened the game missing its first nine shots and connecting on only three of its first 27 attempts before falling to American International, 49-46 at Merkert Gymnasium on Wednesday evening.
For the game, Stonehill shot a season-low 18 percent and was outrebounded 43-35 by the Yellow Jackets.
The Skyhawks free throw shooting kept them in the game, as they made 24 of their 31 attempts.
Through its offensive struggles, the Skyhawks took a 18-16 lead into halftime but American International scored the first four points of the second half to spark a 13-3 run that gave them a 31-23 lead with a little under 12 minutes to go.
The Yellow Jackets maintained their advantage courtesy of some tough jumpers by Stacy Boisvert and free throws from Alexis Castro until Stonehill whittled the lead down to 43-42 on a short jumper from Erika Stupinski (Topsham, Maine).
An inside bucket from Castro and a free throw from Boisvert upped American International's lead to 46-42. Three from the charity stripe from Bethany Tighe (North Easton, Mass.) with 57 seconds left had the Yellow Jacket lead down to one again, but Castro, who went 11-for-14 from the free throw line, sank two more and the Skyhawks never got any closer.
Castro and Boisvert tied for game-high honors with 17 points. Castro, who shot 3-for-15 from the field, added 12 rebounds, while Boisvert had almost as many field goals (8) as the Skyhawks (9) had as a team.
Tighe led Stonehill with nine points and eight rebounds and Kelsey Simonds (Middleboro, Mass.) added eight points, seven rebounds and three steals, while Stupinski chipped in with eight points and three assists.
The loss snapped the Skyhawks four game losing streak and dropped them to 13-3 overall and 9-2 in the Northeast-10.
They return to the court on Saturday when they travel to No. 15 Franklin Pierce for a 1:30 tipoff.