NEWTON, Mass. (2/11/14) – The Lasell College women's basketball team captured a 72-55 Great Northeast Athletic Conference victory at Mount Ida College on Tuesday evening. The Lasers evened their overall record at 11-11 and their GNAC record at 4-4 with the victory while the Mustangs dropped to 3-19 on the season and 0-8 in league contests.
Sophomore Katie Stopera (Hollis, N.H.) led the way for Lasell with 23 points, nine rebounds and four assists and junior Alexis Chappell (Springfield, Mass.) recorded her fifth double-double performance of the season finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Molly Lauver (Cambridge, N.Y.) chipped in with 14 points including a perfect 7-7 effort from the free throw line and Danielle Autencio (Montville, Conn.) finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
Angelique Martinez (Taunton, Mass.) paced the Mustangs in the loss, scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds for her eighth double-double this season. Abbey Fedigan (New Fairfield, Conn.) and Jenn Rafuse (Brockton, Mass.) chipped in 14 and 12 points respectively for the hosts.
Neither team shot the ball particularly well, with the Lasers converting 20-55 attempts from the field and 5-14 from three point territory and Mount Ida making 22-66 from the floor and 3-14 from long range. Lasell held a considerable edge at the free throw line, converting on 27-34 attempts as opposed to 8-13 for the Mustangs.
The Lasers got off to a slow start shooting the basketball, falling behind 9-3 through the first seven minutes of play as they missed their first 20 attempts from the field, scoring on a pair of free throws form Chappell and a freebie from Autencio. Sherilyn Small (Springfield, Mass.) converted a layup at the 12:27 mark in the opening half for Lasell's first field goal to cut the Mount Ida lead to 9-5. Lasell tied the game at 13-13 with 7:45 left in the first half, using seven points from Stopera in an 8-4 burst. Lasell finished the half on an 8-2 run over the final five minutes to take a 27-22 lead into intermission.
The second half was an entirely different story for the Lasers, who shot 12-20 from the field and 5-7 from three-point land on their way to 45 second half points. Mount Ida drew within one at 29-28 in the early moments of the second half before a Deanna Barrett (Berlin, Conn.) triple started a 13-4 run that allowed Lasell to take a 42-32 lead with 12:23 to play in the contest. Martinez stopped the run with a layup but a Stopera three pointer on the next Lasell possession pushed the lead back to double figures and Lasell wouldn't let Mount Ida closer than nine points the rest of the way as the collected the 72-55 victory.
Lasell will travel to Anna Maria on Saturday February 15th for a 1:00 p.m. matchup with the AMCats before closing out their regular season with a pair of home GNAC contests against Norwich and St. Joseph's College of Maine.