Women’s Basketball Collects 78-44 Win Over Anna Maria

QUINCY, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene College women's basketball team downed Anna Maria 78-44 Saturday afternoon at the Lahue Physical Education Center in the first meeting between the two teams since the 2010-11 campaign.

The Lions improve to 4-1 on the season with the victory while the AMCats slide to 0-7 overall.

Alyssa Cosio Murillo (Santa Barbara, Calif.) paced the home side with 10 points off the bench. Stella Dulay (Santa Maria, Calif.) poured in nine points off the bench. Jenn Burnham (West Valley City, Utah), Shannon Chau (San Francisco, Calif.), and Seniesha Sekaquaptewa (Scottsdale, Ariz.) all netted eight points in the contest.

The home team raced out to a quick 4-0 edge before the guests responded with four-straight points to level the game at 4-4 2:13 into the contest.

Eastern Nazarene rattled off a 10-0 run to claim a 14-4 lead with 5:21 left to play in the first quarter.

Layups by Mya Timms (Phoenix, Ariz.), Burnham, and Sekaquaptewa pushed the Lions' advantage to 13 points with 1:11 to go in the opening frame, 20-7.

Eastern Nazarene held a 22-9 lead after the first quarter of action.

The hosts opened the second period with eight-consecutive points to stretch the margin to 21 with six minutes remaining in the quarter, 30-9.

Anna Maria closed the gap to 36-21 just before halftime with a lay-in by Sierra Johnson followed by a three-pointer by Sienna Johnson.

At the break, Eastern Nazarene sported a field-goal percentage of 35.6% despite 0-for-9 shooting from beyond the arc. Anna Maria shot 29.6% in the first half and 16.7% from three-point range.

Burnham and Courtney Barba (Pismo Beach, Calif.) led the Lions' balanced offense with six points each in the first two frames.

The home side strung together an 8-0 run to extend its lead to 50-25 with 3:43 left in the third quarter.

Eastern Nazarene boasted a 24-point advantage heading into the fourth period, 57-33.

A bucket in the paint by Emma Farrow (Blanchester, Ohio) capped off an 14-2 run to increase the Lions' lead to 73-40 with under three minutes to go in regulation.

With 14 seconds on the clock, Dulay canned a three-pointer from the left corner to halt Eastern Nazarene's 0-for-15 drought from downtown in the game to conclude the scoring.

The Lions finished with a field-goal percentage of 42.1% while draining just 1-of-16 attempts from deep. The AMCats shot 34.6% from the floor on the day and were limited to 9.1% from three-point distance.

Sierra Johnson paced Anna Maria with 17 points in the game.

Looking ahead, Eastern Nazarene resumes league play November 27 at home against Dean.