AMHERST, Mass. 12/1/09 - The Keene State
College women's basketball team had their first setback of the 2009
season, with a 72-47 loss to the no. 2 ranked Amherst College Lord
Jeff's on Tuesday night at Alumni Gymnasium. The loss drops the
Owls to 4-1 on the season, while the win improves the Lord Jeff's
to 4-0 on the campaign.
Keene State came out fighting behind senior Kristin
Degou's (Newburyport, Mass.) nine first-half points
including a layup with 10:21 remaining for a 16-13 lead.
Amherst battled back by going on a 16-0 run and opening the lead
up to 29-16 with 4:21 in the first half, on a three point bucket
from Jackie Renner (Newton, Mass.). Owls freshman
guard Amber Alberto (Waterbury, Conn.) ended the
Lord Jeff's fun with a jumper to cut the lead to 29-18.
Just before the break, senior forward Alyssa Sapp
(Hartford, Vermont) buried a three and hit one-of-two from
the line, to make it 39-24 at the half.
The Owls did a nice job preventing Amherst junior All-American
Jaci Dagneault (Guilford, Conn.) to only four
first-half points, and eight total points in the game, but the
Amherst bench outscored the Keene State reserves 26-2 in the first
half and 44-6 in the game.
Keene started the second half in an up-tempo two-three zone,
which caused the Lord Jeffs some initial problems. Amherst
caught a break when Degou picked up her third and fourth fouls in
the first few minutes of the frame, sending her to the bench with
12 points.
Keene State continued to fight and cut the lead to single digits
(41-32) on a pair of free throws from senior forward Nicole
Simmler (Oxford, Mass.) with 14:14 remaining in the game.
But the host Lord Jeff's would not be denied, and opened the lead
up to as many as 25 en route to the 72-47 Owl loss.
Amherst was led in scoring by sophomore center Lem
Atanga McCormick (Chicago, Ill.) with 22 points on 9-of-10
shooting from the field. Sophomore guard Shannon Finucane
(Cortland, N.Y.) also finished with double-digits with 12
points and also had eight assists.
Keene State was paced by Degou's 12 points and five rebounds.
Alberto was the only other Owl to finish in double figures with 10
points, while senior forward Jen Cleaveland (Newington,
Conn.) had a game-high six rebounds in the losing effort.
KSC will return to action this Saturday, December
5th, with their 2009 LEC season opener at UMass-Boston
at 1 p.m.
