Box Score WILLIMANTIC, Conn. - The Keene State College women's basketball team had their worst shooting performance of the season (19 percent, 11-for-58) as No. 1 seed Eastern advanced to the Little East Conference women's basketball final with a 51-30 win Saturday night at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
Eastern (19-8) faces No. 3 seed UMass Boston in the final Sunday at 2 p.m.
The teams had split the regular-season series, but Keene (17-10) had come away with a 48-35 win over the Warriors when the teams met Feb. 11 at Geissler Gym. This was the fourth meeting betweek these two schools in the LEC Tournament, as the teams now have a 2-2 recrod against each other in the postseason.
Eastern broke the third and final tie late in the first half, scoring nine straight points en route to an 11-2 run which was capped by senior forward Shannon McCourt's first career three-pointer that made it 20-11 with 2:39 left.
The Warriors continued to pull away in the second half as KSC was unable to find any sort of offensive rythm.
Keene's starters combined to miss 37 of 45 field goal attempts and shot 3-for-16 from three-point range.
The point total was the lowest of the year for Keene, which did not have a double-digit scorer and had a five-game winning streak ended. Junior guard Kelsey Cognetta led Keene with nine points and sophomore forward Stephanie D'Annolfo had seven rebounds, three steals and three assists.
McCourt led all players with 15 points, senior guard Kristina Forsman adding 11 points and nine rebounds. Three of Forsman's four field goals were from three-point range. Jill Ritrosky tied her season high with 17 rebounds. The Warriors out-rebounded Keene, 53-42, including 22-14 on the offensive boards.
Keene State will await a possible ECAC Tournament bid to be announced Monday afternoon.
(Parts of this story courtesy ECSU Sports Information)
