Women’s Basketball Falls To Daniel Webster In NECC Quarterfinal, 80-62

Box Score

NASHUA, N.H. – Elms College junior forward Erika Murphy (Torrington, Conn.) scored a team-high 21 points for the sixth-seeded Blazers but No. 3 Daniel Webster College used a 25-point effort from Vanessa Bosques (North Windham, Conn.) and a triple-double from Sarah Paternostro (Glastonbury, Conn.) to help lift the Eagles to an 80-62 win in Tuesday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship tournament women's basketball quarterfinal game.

With the loss, Elms concludes its season 9-17 overall. Daniel Webster improves to 16-10 on the season and will advance to the semifinals to face second-seed Mitchell College (14-9, 11-4 NECC) on Friday, Feb. 25 at 8:00 p.m.

Elms stormed out to an early 16-4 lead when freshman forward Nicolette Martin (Colchester, Conn.) hit a mid-range jumper at the 14:08 mark that capped a 12-0 run that broke a 4-4 tie three minutes into the game.

The Blazers held a 20-10 lead with 11:26 to play in the opening period before Daniel Webster used a 12-3 run over the next 5:22 sparked by a Bosques trey to pull the Eagles to within one at 23-22. From there, a Kristen Murphy (Woodstock, Vt.) layup gave Daniel Webster a 24-23 edge and the Eagles continued to swing the tide scoring 17 of the next 18 points to stake a 41-24 lead with 51 seconds to play in the half. Erika Murphy then hit the back end of two free throws and converted a layup to stop the run and pull Elms to within 14 at 41-27 at intermission.

Elms' freshman guard Emily Boucher (Ashburnham, Mass.) capitalized on a three-point play with a layup and a free throw at the 18:05 mark, and sophomore guard Jen Normandie (Westford, Mass.) delivered a layup underneath two minutes later to narrow the deficit to 13 twice but that's as close as Elms would get.

A Kristen Murphy jumper at the 9:20 mark gave Daniel Webster its largest lead of the contest (25 points at 66-41) before the Eagles maintained at least an 18-point cushion and pulled away to an 82-60 victory and punched their ticket to the semifinal round.

Elms was led by Erika Murphy who connected on 9 of 18 shooting from the field, added three steals and hauled in a game-high 11 rebounds, while Normandie followed with a 10-point effort and recorded four steals in the losing effort.

Freshman guard Ellen Donohue (Southington, Conn.) added seven points and four assists, while Martin and junior guard Katie Condon (Sandy Hook, Conn.) combined for 11 points.

Bosques' 25 points led four Eagles in double figures as Alycia Gervais (Windham, Conn.) and Paternostro chipped in 16 and 14 points respectively, while Kristen Murphy rounded out Daniel Webster's double-digit scorers with 10 points.

Paternostro scored 14 points, dished out 13 assists and hauled in 10 rebounds to complete her triple-double.

Daniel Webster shot 50-percent from the field and 43.8-percent from beyond the arc highlighted by a 3 for 7 effort from Bosques from three-point range to help seal the win.