Posted: Feb 16, 2013
Chestnut Hill, Mass. (2/16/13) – The Lasell College women's basketball team earned an 87-67 victory over Pine Manor College on Saturday afternoon at Brunelli Court. The Lasers closed out their season at 10-15 overall while Pine Manor fell 9-13 on the year.
Lasell's Molly Lauver (Cambridge, N.Y.) scored a game-high 30 points off the bench for the Lasers on 11-16 shooting. Alexis Chappell (Springfield, Mass.) finished with a double-double on the afternoon, collecting a game-high 19 rebounds and scoring 16 points. Kim Archibald (Lewiston, Maine) finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds in her final collegiate game. Lasell freshman Ginella Cola (Lowell, MA) also added 10 points for the Lasers.
Gators guard Sybil Lynch (Hoboken, N.J.) scored a career-high 29 points to lead the way for PMC. Freshman Alexis Lee (Akron, OH) was the only other Gator to join Lynch in double-figures, finishing with 17 points on 6-15 shooting from the floor. Playing in her final home game for the Gators, PMC senior Ashley Reeves (Roxbury, MA) scored three points and collected a pair of rebounds.
In the opening minutes of the game it was Pine Manor that held the advantage, as a pair of free throws from Lynch gave PMC an 8-4 advantage five minutes into the contest. Just seconds later, Lauver would knock down her first bucket for the Lasers. With Lasell trailing 8-6, sophomore Nikita Soares (Westport, MA) converted an and-one opportunity to push the Lasers in front, at 9-8, with 13:37 to play in the first.
Lasell increased its advantage to five points at 10:58 of the first when sophomore Alexis Chappell and senior Kim Archibald converted on back-to-back layups 30-seconds apart to give the Lasers an 18-13 advantage.
The Lasell lead would grow to as many as 13 points late in the first half, but the Gators were able to cut the deficit to single-digits just before the half as Lynch knocked down a layup with 32-seconds remaining to send the teams into the break with Lasell leading 45-36.
Lasell would stretch the lead back to 12 points in the first two minutes of the second half before Pine Manor was able to chip away at the deficit. The Gators pulled within four points of the Lasers with 15:29 remaining, following back-to-back buckets from Lynch that made the score 53-49 in favor of the visitors.
With Pine Manor now within four points, Lasell rattled off a 14-2 run to take a 67-51 led with less than ten minutes to play. The Lasers would stretch the lead to 20 points with seven minutes to go-- largely thanks to Cola who scored all 10 of her points during the Lasell run midway through the second half.
Not content to go quietly, the Gators again rallied to cut the deficit, capitalizing on an 8-0 run to once again pull within single digits, at 75-66, with 4:43 to play. However, Lasell would then close out the game on a 12-1 run to take the 87-67 victory.