Newton, MA - The Lasell women's basketball team hosted the Raiders of Rivier on Wednesday evening.
Both teams came into the game with 5-2 conference records sitting in a tie for fourth place in the GNAC. Off the tip, the lasers scored first with a layup by Alexis Bulson-Cuozzo. The Raiders however took the momentum from this point as over the next several minutes they outscored the Lasers 11-4, going up 11-6. As Shirle Major got inserted off the bench she drilled back-to-back threes cutting the lead back to 1, and tallied 8 of 16 Laser points in the period. The Lasers went into the second quarter trailing by 3, 19-16.
Halfway through the second quarter saw the Lasers down 7, 25-18, before Shirle Major knocked down another triple cutting it back to a 4-point game. The Raiders then went on a quick 5-0 spurt, causing a Lasers timeout as the score stood at 30-21. Continuing their run the Raiders upped their lead to as much as 16 before a JuJu Nealy three stopped the bleeding with just under 2 minutes to go in the second. This was the start of a 7-2 run to end the half for the Lasers, but would still find themselves in a 39-28 hole at the break.
In the third, the Lasers tried to cut into the Raider's lead but the scoring of Lyric Grumblatt who ended the game with a career-high 45 points and posted 13 in the third quarter, was difficult for the Lasers to match. The Lasers went into the fourth down by 15. In the fourth, the Lasers could not find the momentum to mount a comeback and fell short 83-64.
Shirle Major led the scoring column for the Lasers, coming off the bench and tallying 19 points. Mia Sullivan-Saunders added in 8 points and 10 rebounds and Laura Johnson had 7 points to go along with her game-high 13 boards.
Up Next - The Lasers will look to rebound on Saturday taking a trip down the road to Regis College.