NEWTON, Mass. (2/22/14) – The Lasell College women's basketball team dropped a narrow Great Northeast Athletic Conference result 60-56 to St. Joseph's College of Maine. The Lasers dropped to 12-13 on the season and 5-6 in conference play while St. Joseph's improved to 20-5 overall and 10-1 in league play. This marked the 16th time in St. Joseph's program history that the Monks won 20 games in a season. The two teams will meet on Tuesday February 25th in the GNAC quarterfinals in Standish, Maine at 5:30 p.m. with the Monks owning the #2 seed while Lasell will be the #7 seed.
Molly Lauver (Cambridge, N.Y.) scored a game-high 21 points with six rebounds and five assists on 8-12 shooting including 5-8 from three point territory. Alexis Chappell (Springfield, Mass.) was the only other Lasers player in double figures with 14 points, while Danielle Autencio (Montville, Conn.) finished with six points and a team-high nine rebounds. Kayla Vincelette (Westport, Mass.) added nine points with a pair of blocked shots in her final regular season home game.
Abby Young (North Yarmouth, Maine) scored a team-high 18 points as she surpassed the 1,000 point mark for her career while grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds and blocking four shots. Morgan Cahill (Yarmouth, Maine) added 15 points while snaring eight rebounds while Mackenzie Dufour (Augusta, Maine) and Danica Gleason (South Portland, Maine) each chipped in with nine points.
The two teams traded baskets in the early going, as Chappell scored nine in the opening minutes for Lasell and Cahill opened with seven for St. Joseph's with Lasell taking a 17-15 lead with 11 minutes gone in the first half. The hosts went on a 12-2 run to open up a 29-17 lead behind a pair of three pointers from Lauver with just under three minutes left in the half. The Monks closed the half with a 9-2 run of their own with Young accounting for five of those markers coming from Abby Young as Lasell held a 31-26 edge at intermission.
St. Joseph's chipped away at the Lasell lead, trimming the lead to 43-39 with 12:28 left in the game. A layup from Abby Young cut the margin to 48-45 before Vincelette scored on a twisting finish in the paint and knocked down a pair from the free throw stripe to give Lasell a 52-45 lead with just under seven minutes to play.
The Monks then used an elbow jumper from Cahill and back-to-back three pointers from Danica Gleason and Dufour to take a 53-52 lead with five minutes left, setting the stage for a down to the wire finish. St. Joseph's used a Cahill layup to go in front 55-52, but Lasell came right back with jumpers by Autencio and Lauver to go back in front 56-55 with less than three minutes to play. A Cahill jumper gave the visitors the lead right back with a jumper, making it 57-56 and a free throw by Dufour gave St. Joe's a two point lead with 14 seconds to play. Lasell had a baseline three pointer blocked in the closing seconds, and Dufour iced the game with two more free throws.