Women’s Basketball Outlasts Bridgewater in Overtime
Framingham, Mass.- Framingham State freshman Lauren Donahue (Attletboro/ Bishop Feehan) drained a three-pointer to give the Rams the lead with just over a minute to play in overtime to drive Framingham State to victory over MASCAC foe Bridgewater State 72-67 Saturday afternoon.
With the victory the Rams improve to 13-7 (5-4 MASCAC) and the Bears fall to 12-9 (6-3 MASCAC).
Sophomore Sarah Palace (Auburn) was the Rams leading scorer with 18 points including 3 from long range and shot 7-of-8 from the line. Senior Nicole Bostic (Easton/Oliver Ames) scored 16 points and classmate Johanna Annunziata (Auburn/ Miller) contributed 12 points and a game high 8 assists. Donahue collected 12 including the game winner in overtime. Freshman Casie Thurber (Springfield/Sabis Int.) collected a career high 20 rebounds and 4 blocked shots to go with her 9 points.
The Bears were paced by junior Vanesa Conceicao (New Bedford) who scored a game high 28 points and was 7-of-13 from beyond the arc. Senior Rachel Kusz (Worcester/St. Peter-Marian) scored all 15 of her points from downtown.
After a trading the lead a few times in the first frame a Kusz trey cut the Rams lead to 24-23 with just under six minutes to play. The Rams then went on an 8-0 run capped off by a Donahue trey to extend their lead to 31-23. The Bears answered with another Kusz three-pointer and would head into the break with the Rams up 31-26.
The second stanza started with both teams trading the lead back and forth. Just about halfway through the 2nd period Jennie Lindland (Edgartown/Matha's Vinyard Regioanl) made a layup to give the Bears a 42-40 lead. The Rams then went on an 11-0 run capped by a Bostic basket with just under 8 minutes to play to put the Rams up 9, the largest lead either team will have on the day.
The Bears answered a few minutes later with an 11-0 run of their own featuring two Kusz treys and a Conceicao three-pointer to take a 56-53 advantage with 4:36 to go. Palace hit a trey to put the Rams up 59-56 with under 2 minutes to go but the Bears would score a basket, get a stop and Conceicao nails a three with 28 ticks left the put the Bears in the lead 61-59. Bostic would hit a layup for the Rams to tie the game at 61 with 13 seconds to go. The Bears missed an uncontested three with three seconds to go, got the offensive board but could not generate another quality chance in time to send the game to overtime.
After trading a few baskets a Christina Jaros (Plymouth) layup with 1:24 to play in overtime gave the Bears a 67-65 lead. The Rams answer with a Donahue trey to give them a one point lead. With 40 seconds on the clock the Bears miss a shot from long range, Donahue collects the rebound and is fouled. Donahue pushes the lead to 69-67 but misses the back end as the Bears again drive down the court. The Bears again go for the three but miss, get the rebound and are fouled. The Bears miss the front end of the 1-and-1 the Rams collect the rebound and a Rams player is fouled on the inbound play. Annunziata hits the front end to put the Rams up 3 but misses the back end. Rams freshman Payton Bruegger (Millbury) collects the rebound and hits a layup to give the Rams a 72-67 lead. The Bears would not have time to get off a quality shot on their end of the floor.
Bridgewater was 26-of-69 from the floor including 13-of-29 from long range. The Rams shot 36 percent from the field and from beyond the arc. The Rams capitalized on the offensive boards collecting 19 second chance points to the Bears 7.
The Rams return to action Tuesday when they travel to MCLA for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off. The Bears will travel to Worcester State on the same day with action slated to start at 6:00 p.m.