Women’s Basketball Fends Off Second Half Surge to Top Southern Vermont College, 70-60

BENNINGTON, Vt. - Elms College sophomore guard Gianna Youngblood (East Freetown, Mass.) swished six three-pointers and scored a team-high 20 points, sophomore forward Denisha Parks (Fall River, Mass.) added a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds and the Blazers fended off a second half rally by Southern Vermont College to post a 70-60 win in Thursday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) women's basketball game in Bennington, Vt.

With the win, Elms extends its winning streak to four games and has won nine of its last 10 to stand at 11-8 overall, 10-2 in conference play. Southern Vermont moves to 3-16 overall, 3-9 in NECC play.

In the first period, Elms used the hot shooting from Youngblood to post a 42-20 advantage at intermission. The Blazers shot 42.9-percent from the field and 54.5-percent from beyond the arc, highlighted by the 5 for 8 effort from Youngblood from long distance.

Youngblood finished with 17 points, while Parks was 5 of 12 from the field and totaled 14 points to go along with nine boards in the first 20 minutes of action.

Sarah McDonald (Cohoes, N.Y.) scored a team-high seven points for Southern Vermont, followed by six and five points from Amber Flagg (Windsor, Conn.) and Javasha White (Schenectady, N.Y.) respectively.

In the second stanza, Flagg erupted for 21 points on 8 of 15 shooting from the field to post a game-high 27 points in the game. White added 10 points and seven rebounds in the second half and finished with 15, while McDonald added four points and tallied 11 points.

The Mountaineers slowly chipped away at Elms' cushion and after a jumper by Blazers' freshman guard Maira Pantoja (East Windsor, Conn.) hit a jump shot to set the score at 69-46 with 3:57 to play, Southern Vermont closed out the game on a 14-1 run to pull the Mountaineers to within 10 and set the final score at 70-60. Flagg scored 12 of the 14 points, while White added the final layup of the game with 10 ticks on the clock.

Overall, Southern Vermont held a 42.4 to 39.4 advantage in field goal percentage, while Elms edged the Mountaineers on the glass, 40-39.

White amassed a game-high 13 rebounds for Southern Vermont in the losing effort.

Elms is back in NECC action on Saturday, Feb. 2 when it hosts Mitchell College at 2:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena.