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Recap | Box Score
Nighthawks Drop NECC Opener to Lynx
The Newbury College women’s basketball team dropped their New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) opener to Lesley University, 53-45, Wednesday evening. Junior Rachael O’Mara (Levittown, N.Y./General Douglas McArthur) led three Lynx in double figures registering a game-high 14 points.
Lesley started slow but quickly jumped out to an early 6-0 lead. Newbury sophomore forward Jasmine Bishop (Waterville, Maine./Waterville) put the Nighthawks on the scoreboard four minutes into the contest with a lay-up cutting the score to four. Following a long range three from Lesley senior forward Cassidy Freed (Brattleboro, Vt./Brattleboro Union) to push the Lynx lead to seven, sophomore center Catherine O’Connell (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy) cleaned up the offensive glass with a put back to trim the deficit to five.
Mid-way through the first half, the Lynx starting clicking on offense as they went on a 14-0 run sparked by freshman guard Kacie St. Onge (Brattleboro, Vt./Brattleboro Union). The Nighthawks remained tough and continued to chip away at the lead, trailing by just five, 26-21, going into the locker rooms.
When the second half commenced, the Nighthawks were unrelenting, cutting the deficit one twice and a field goal five times. Sophomore forward Jalisa Fields (Bronx, N.Y./St. Michael Academy) came up with big rebounds for Newbury as they were closing the gap. Fields finished the game with 10 points and six rebounds.
After Newbury pulled to within one point of the lead with under four minutes left to play, Lesley began to dominate the offensive glass as they went on an 8-2 run to open up the game 49-43. Lynx senior center Brianne Caira (Pelham, N.H./Pelham) was a force in the low-post , registering a game-high 20 rebounds in addition to her 11 points in the victory.
O’Connell recorded her sixth double-double of the season, tallying a game-high 14 points and 17 boards while junior guard Shayla White (Dorchester, Mass./Wellesley) picked up her 100th steal of her career, with two steals in the loss.
The win improves Lynx to 1-5 on the season and 1-0 in conference play while the Nighthawks fall to 0-1 in the NECC and 1-7 overall. Newbury returns to the hard-court on Saturday December 11th as they host the Becker College Hawks in the second game of a men’s-women’s double-header at 2:00pm.
- Game photo by: Samantha Yanofsky
