Women’s Basketball Advances Past Mitchell College, 72-48

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College sophomore forward Denisha Parks (Fall River, Mass.) netted a game-high 21 points and sophomore guard Gianna Youngblood (East Freetown, Mass.) swished four three pointers to finish with 12 points as the second-seeded Blazers topped No. 7 Mitchell College, 72-48 in Tuesday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship First Round women's basketball game at Picknelly Arena.

With the win, Elms improves to 16-10 overall and advances to the tournament semifinals against No. 6 Becker College (10-16). The Hawks defeated No. 3 Newbury College 68-51 in first round action on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals.

With the loss, Mitchell concludes its season 7-18 overall.

In the opening 20 minutes, Elms led for the majority period despite a pair of treys from the Mariners' Kate Mulloy (Gardner, Mass.) and one from Kaylee Cerruto (Torrington, Conn.). Mulloy hit her second three of the half to pull Mitchell to within three (13-10) at the 16:12 mark, but Elms used a 13-6 run to stake a 26-16 lead with 4:48 to play in the half.

Cerruto swished her trey and then hit a jumper and Diamond Thomas (Hartford, Conn.) added a jumper to narrow the Mariners' deficit to three at 26-23 with 3:59 left but swish from long range by Elms' freshman guard Jenna Oyler (Metuchen, N.J.) and Youngblood added a three-pointer as the Blazers used a 12-0 run to close out the stanza with a 15-point 38-23 lead.

In the second frame, Cerruto hit two three-pointers to pull Mitchell to within 14, but the Mariners could get no closer as the Blazers limited Mitchell to 31.0-percent shooting in the second half and mounted a lead of as many as 26 (66-40) on a Parks layup with 5:27 remaining in the contest.

Elms shot 44.8-percent from the floor as a team and outscored Mitchell 34-10 in the paint. Sophomore forward JC Pickett (Chicopee, Mass.) pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds and Parks added 11 boards as the Blazers out-rebounded the Mariners, 18-3. Pickett finished with seven points in the winning effort.

Senior guard Jen Normandie (Westford, Mass.) was stellar at both ends of the floor scoring 11 points on 5 of 12 shooting and added six rebounds and three assists, while Oyler finished with 10 points, five boards and three assists off the bench.

Junior guard Ellen Donohue (Southington, Conn.) dished out five assists and canned a trey, while Parks added five assists of her own to go along with her double-double.

Cerruto finished with a team-high 17 points on the strength of 5 of 8 shooting from beyond the arc. Amanda Garcia (New Britain, Conn.) added nine points and a team-high seven boards and Mulloy swatted five shots in the loss for the Mariners.