GORHAM, Maine -- Senior forward Ashley Marble (Topsfield, Maine/Woodland) recorded her 20th double-double of the season by scoring 26 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to lead the eighth-ranked University of Southern Maine Huskies to their 11th consecutive Little East Conference championship with a 68-57 win over the Keene State College Owls Saturday afternoon at the Warren Hill Gymnasium on the Gorham campus.
With the win, the Huskies secured an automatic berth in the 2007 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament. The Huskies improved to 25-2 and avenged a regular season loss last weekend at the hands of the Owls. Keene State drops to 21-6 with the loss and will await to learn of a possible post-season berth.
Marble, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player for the second consecutive year, was 8-for-18 from the field and 9-for-12 from the charity stripe. The 5-foot-9 forward's game-high 10 rebounds gave her 1,115 for her career to set a new USM record, surpassing the mark set by Sue Joseph '80 of 1108 rebounds. Marble's 26 points pushes her over the 1,900-point plateau with 1,911 points.
Southern Maine senior guard Lindsey Welch (Newport, Maine/Nokomis) and freshman guard Nicole Paradis (Skowhegan, Maine/Skowhegan) joined Marble in double-figure scoring. Welch tallied 13 points and grabbed a career-high seven rebounds to compliment a pair of assists and steals. Paradis played a steady floor game for the Huskies, netting 10 points with a team-high four assists and three steals.
Keene State sophomore guard Michele Boudreau (Readsboro, Vt./Drury) led three KSC players in double-figures with 14 points, including a 4-for-9 mark from three-point range. Freshman guard Kristin Degou (Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport) added 12 points, and senior forward Sarah Begnoche (Millville, Mass./Blackstone-Millville) was 5-for-8 from the floor for 11 points.
Southern Maine trailed Keene State, 32-29, at the half as Boudreau and Degou combined to score 20 of the Owls 32 points before the break. Boudreau was 4-for-9 from the field in the opening stanza with three three-point field goals, and Degou was 4-for-5 with one three. The Huskies, despite shooting a solid 41.7 percent (10-for-24) from the floor, were hampered by turnovers committing eight their 12 miscues of the game in the first half.
Southern Maine quickly erased the deficit, outscoring Keene State 16-4 in the first six minutes of the second half. Marble netted the first five points of the pivotal run, while junior forward Angela Santa Fe (Derry,N.H./Pinkerton Academy) scored four of her eight points on a pair of powerful post moves. Marble followed Santa Fe with a lay-up for her seventh point of the run which was capped by three-pointers from Paradis and Welch as USM took a 46-36 lead with 13:59 remaining. Keene State's Begnoche and sophomore forward Jenn Kinney (Salem, N.H./Salem) each scored two points in the stretch.
Keene State was able to cut the lead to six with 12:06 to play on back-to-back lay-ups from Kinney and freshman guard Alyssa Sapp (Hartford, Vt./Hartford), but the Huskies countered with back-to-back three-pointers from Paradis and junior guard Dawn Ross (Gray, Maine/Gray-New Gloucester) for a 52-40 lead with 10:26 showing.
The Huskies outscored the Owls 11-6 over the next four minutes to take their largest lead of the game, 63-46, with 5:53 to play. From there, USM held Keene State at bay en route to the 68-57 final.
Southern Maine finished the game shooting 47.1 percent from the field connecting on 24-of-51 attempts from the floor, including a 9-for-21 effort from three-point range (42.9 percent). Keene State shot a solid 44.0 percent (22-for-50) from the floor, but struggled from the free throw line, making just 6-of-14 tries (42.9 percent).
The Huskies automatic bid into the NCAA tournament is their 13th consecutive, and 21st in the last 22 years. The NCAA will announce the teams that have made the tournament Sunday night at approximately 10:00 p.m., and the tournament pairings will be released Monday morning (February 26).
