Second-Half Rally Falls Short, Women’s Basketball Outlasted By Wheelock College, 68-60

Box Score

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Elms College junior forward Erika Murphy (Torrington, Conn.) scored 11 of her team-high 15 points to lead a furious second-half rally, but Wheelock College cut the comeback attempt short and held on for a 68-60 victory in Thursday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) women's basketball contest.

With the loss, Elms falls to 8-16 overall, 6-9 in NECC play, while Wheelock improves to 5-17 on the season, 4-11 in conference action. The Wildcats' win marked the first time since 2000 that Wheelock has beaten the Blazers and snapped an 18-game series losing streak.

Elms will host Wheelock on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 2:00 p.m. in the 2010-11 regular season finale at Picknelly Arena.

Trailing 59-52 with 3:18 to play in the game, junior guard Katie Condon (Sandy Hook, Conn.) nailed a pair of free throws to pull the Blazers to within five at 59-54. Forty-two seconds later, Murphy connected on two foul shots to shrink the deficit to 59-56 and freshman guard Taylor Darby (Bristol, Conn.) hit the front end of two free throws to close Wheelock's edge to 59-57 with 2:24 to play.

Following a swish from the stripe by Wheelock's Sherrell Brown (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Condon delivered two more free throws to set the score at 60-59 with 1:31 on the clock before Keneisha Milton (Boston, Mass.) answered with a three-point play on a layup and a free throw and Maya Spratling (Dorchester, Mass.) hit a foul shot to give the Wildcats a 64-59 lead with 31 ticks remaining.

Condon hit another free throw to pull Elms to within four at 64-60 but Spratling and Milton each converted two from the line to halt the Blazers' comeback efforts and stake a 68-60 victory.

Elms, which trailed 32-17 at intermission scored 15 of the first 24 points of the second half over a 3:19 span, highlighted by three-pointers from Darby, and freshmen guards Ellen Donohue (Southington, Conn.) and Emily Boucher (Ashburnham, Mass.) to cut the gap to nine (41-32).

Wheelock extended its lead to as many as 13 points twice more before a Boucher trey set the score at 56-46 with 7:31 left in the game. A Murphy free throw, and another strike from beyond the arc by Darby at the 5:13 mark narrowed the Wildcats' lead to 56-50.

After exchanging free throws to keep Wheelock's advantage at five points (57-52) with 3:58 remaining in the contest, Brown put Wheelock ahead by seven with two from the stripe setting the stage for the Blazers' final comeback attempt over the last 3:18.

Condon and Boucher each finished in double figures for Elms with 12 and 10 points respectively, while Murphy added a team-best 10 rebounds in the losing effort.

Condon added eight boards and hit on 10 of 12 from the charity stripe, while Murphy secured four steals.

Joy Holliday (Milford, Mass.) scored a game-high 18 points to lead four Wildcats with double-digit scoring nights.

Milton finished with 15 points and hauled in a game-best 21 rebounds, while Brown and Kayla Drescher (Wallingford, Conn.) contributed 11 and 10 points respectively. Drescher added 13 boards and dished out six assists to help the Wildcats outlast the Blazers.