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Recap | Box Score
Blazers Halt Nighthawks Win Streak
The Newbury College women’s basketball team dropped their first game since December, falling to Elms College, 63-47, in the second game of Saturday afternoon’s double-header. Junior forward Erika Murphy (Torrington, Conn./Torrington) handed the Nighthawks their first loss, since December 7th against Lesley, draining a game-high 29 points while ripping down 18 boards in the victory.
Junior guard Morganna Machado (Attleboro, Mass./Attleboro) broke up a 5-5 stalemate three minutes into the contest, netting a long range trey to give the Nighthawks the 8-5 advantage. The score stood that way for the next four minutes until Blazers junior Katie Condon (Sandy Hook,Conn./Newtown) broke up the scoreless streak, knocking down one of her two free throws to close the deficit to two.
The majority of the first half the spread never exceeded more than five. With under two minutes to play in the half, sophomore Catherine O’Connell (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy) sparked a 5-0 Newbury run. The second year center drained a lay-up and converted the three-point play to cut the Elms lead to two. A minute later, senior Ashley Monteiro (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge & Latin) was clutch from the charity stripe, knocking down both her free throws, to tie up the game as the teams headed into the locker rooms.
When play resumed in the second, the Elms came out blazing. Murphy drained 17 of her 29 points while sophomore Jen Normandie (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) caught fire netting 11 of her 13 points as the Blazers outscored the Nighthawks, 38-22 in the half.
Monteiro was the only Newbury player to register double figures, tallying a team-high 19 points. She kept the Nighthawks in the contest draining all five of her field goals from long range. O’Connell was solid in the defensive low-post, pulling down 16 rebounds.
Elms improves to 5-8 and 3-1 in the NECC with the victory while Newbury falls to 6-8 and 4-2 in the conference. The Nighthawks return to the hard-court on Thursday January 20th in Cambridge, Mass. against Lesley University. In their first meeting of the season, the Lynx won 53-45 on December 7th.
