Parks Nets 26 as Women’s Basketball Powers Past Bard College, 73-44

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College junior forward Denisha Parks (Fall River, Mass.) netted a game-best 26 points and totaled 11 rebounds to lead the Blazers to a 73-44 victory over Bard College in Tuesday evening's non-conference women's basketball game at Picknelly Arena.

Tuesday's contest was the 2013-14 home opener for Elms and marks the team's first win of the season and improves the team to 1-2 overall. Bard falls to 0-4 on the season.

Parks netted her 26 points on the strength of 11 of 18 shooting from the floor and was a perfect 4 of 4 from the free throw line. As a team, Elms was 84.2-percent from the stripe converting on 16 of 19 foul shots.

Junior guard Gianna Youngblood (East Freetown, Mass.) added 14 points and pulled down nine rebounds and was 4 of 10 shooting from the field. Junior forward JC Pickett (Chicopee, Mass.) and freshman guard Amanda Wall (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) each added six points with Wall's coming by way of a pair of three-pointers.

Bard was led by 17-point and game-high 14 rebound effort from Tytravia Riley (Miami, Fla.) who knocked down 7 of 15 from the floor. Liz Freud (Dover, Delaware) and Joanna Regan (Selden, N.Y.) each contributed nine points in the loss, while Regan added seven boards.

Parks paced the Blazers to a 10-point first half lead behind a 14-point and seven rebound effort and hit a jumper with 2:33 left in the period to give Elms its largest lead to that point at 32-18. Youngblood added seven points in the stanza, while Wall swished her two treys in the half.

Five minutes into the second half, Elms pulled away as Youngblood drained two of her three shots from beyond the arc to give the Blazers a 53-31 lead. Elms closed out the game on an 8-0 run as senior guard Ellen Donohue (Southington, Conn.) scored four points, while sophomore guard Maira Pantoja (East Windsor, Conn.) and freshman forward Heather Bailey (Williamstown, Vt.) each netted two in the final 1:54.

Bard was limited to just 20.7-percent shooting in the second half and shot 31-percent from the field for the game, while Elms enjoyed a 20-5 advantage in points off the bench.

Elms opens New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action on Tuesday, December 3 when it hosts Southern Vermont College at 6:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena in its next outing.