Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The No. 5 seed Keene State women's basketball team pulled out a 61-58 victory over No. 4 Norwich university in the quarterfinal round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Tournament on Wednesday night at Andrews Gymnasium.
Keene State improves to 18-10 on the year and will advance to the semifinal round against top-seeded Westfield State University on Saturday, March 7 at 3:30 p.m. The semifinals and finals will be held on the campus of Brandeis University.
The Cadets will close the 2014-15 campaign with a 22-6 overall record.
Keene State was led by freshman guard Sandi Purcell posting 15 points, all from three-point range, as sophomore guard Christan Wojtas scored 14 points and a pair of assists. Classmate Stephanie D'Annolfo chipped in 12 points and collected six assists as sophomore forward Sarah Kober pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds for the Owls.
Three players scored in double digits for the Cadets with senior guard Aliah Curry leading the team with 15 points and seven assists, while classmate Kelsey Lotti contributed 13 points and four rebounds on the night. Sophomore Kayla Mercer added 11 points as classmate Heather LeBlanc pulled down a team-high 15 rebounds to go along with the two blocks and six points.
Keene State jumped out to a 9-2 lead with Wojtas scoring eight points on back-to-back threes followed by a layup with a free throw by D'Annolfo. Norwich would come to life on a trio of long bombs from Curry, Mercer and Lotti to make it a one-point game, 12-11, before Curry nailed both free throws to give the Cadets their first lead of the contest.
Both teams were aggressive midway through the frame with Norwich maintaining the lead until a pair of Owls' free throws knotted the game at 27 apiece with five minutes to play. The Cadets would get retain the lead once again on a pair of free throws by Lotti and Curry before Curry nailed her second trey of the half to put Norwich ahead 34-29. Both teams would put additional points on the board with the Cadets leading 35-31 at the break.
Norwich shot 50 percent from the floor (10-of-20) and 6-of-10 from beyond the arc (60 percent), while Keene State made just 11-of-32 (34.4 percent) from the field and made four of its 11 attempts from the three point line (36.4 percent).
The Owls came out of the locker room on a 6-0 run to open the second half and retake the lead before Norwich's Arriana Harrison (Vernon, Vt.) tied it up at 37 points each at the 16:58 mark. It then became a back-and-forth affair that saw five lead changes in the next seven minutes before Harrison made a layup to give the Cadets the 47-46 lead with 10:33 on the clock. Keene State quickly burned a timeout before Sandi Purcell nailed a trio of treys to give the Owls a six point lead, 55-49, at the 6:07 mark.
The Cadets would quickly rebound from the hole on three free throws before Purcell nailed her fifth three pointer of the game to give the Owls a 58-52 cushion with 3:11 remaining in the game. Norwich would score six more points, however the Owls would add three points from the charity stripe to stay ahead for the 61-58 victory as time expired.
Norwich struggled to find the basket in the second half, shooting 25 percent from the field to finish the game with a 35.4 shooting percentage. The Cadets would outshoot the Owls from the charity stripe, hitting 16-of-19 from the line to Keene State's 8-of-14. The Owls improved their field shooting in the second half, hitting 40.7 percent before closing out the game with a 37.3 shooting percentage overall. Keene State had a slight advantage on the rebounds, edging Norwich 38-35 and would score 15 points on second chances.
(Recap courtesy of Norwich Sports Information)
