Nighthawks Power Past Wildcats, 68-40

The Newbury College women's basketball team defeated Bay Path College, 68-40 Tuesday evening. Freshman Catherine O'Connell (Quincy, MA/North Quincy) led all scorers with a game-high 16 points as well as recording her eighth double-double of the season, tallying 11 rebounds in the victory.

Along with fellow freshman Jalisa Fields (Bronx, NY/St. Michael Academy), O'Connell helped the Nighthawks take an 11 point lead into the locker room at half. O'Connell put 13 points up on the board in the half while Fields came off the bench in the first and drained 11. She would later add four in the second to finish with 15 as the Newbury bench outscored the Bay Path bench 17-5.

The Wildcats kept pace with the Nighthawks for much of the first half behind senior Jessica Hunt (Madison, CT/Daniel Hand), who netted 10 of her 12 points in the first. But Newbury pulled away in the second, holding Bay Path to just 19 points.

Senior captain Katelyn Mark (Quincy, MA/North Quincy) headlined the three other Nighthawks who reached double figures in the contest, also netting 15 points - 13 coming in the second period of play. Sophomores Morganna Machado (Attleboro, MA/Attleboro) and Shayla White (Dorchester, MA/Wellesley) rounded out the players in double digits, each hitting 10 points of their own.

With the win the Nighthawks improve to 3-2 in the conference and 4-5 overall while the Wildcats remain winless in the conference at 0-4 and 3-9 overall. Newbury looks to even up the score when they travel to Chicopee on Thursday to face the 2-2 Elms College Blazers at 7:00pm. The Nighthawks lost their first match-up to the Blazers, 73-55, on January 9^th at home.

- Game story by Lindsay Graham - Staff Assistant

- Game photo provided by Samantha Yanofsky