Women’s Hoops Drops 76-60 Decision to Norwich

PLYMOUTH, N.H.- Playing its third game in three days, the Eastern Nazarene women's basketball team endured a 76-60 loss to Norwich Saturday afternoon in the Comfort Inn Tip-Off Tournament championship held at Plymouth State University.

The result drops the Lions to 2-1 on the season while the Cadets improve to 2-0 overall.

Junior Presley Neufeld (Seattle, Wash.) paced Eastern Nazarene with 18 points off the bench as she drained a team-best four three-pointers in the contest. Senior Shardae Brown (Waterbury, Conn.) scored 13 points and hauled in a game-high nine rebounds. Seniors Ace Carradine (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Mel Green (Annapolis, Md.) and junior Abbie Tonello (Bourne, Mass.) all added eight points while rookie Jasmin Rodriguez (Milford, Conn.) grabbed eight boards.

Norwich scored the first six points of the game before the Lions rallied back to claim an 8-7 edge with 15:56 remaining.

The Cadets reestablished a five-point margin with a 6-0 run to lead 15-10 at the midway point of the first period.

Norwich stretched its advantage to 11 with 33 seconds left to play in the half as Sheridan Steiner sank a lay-up. Eastern Nazarene responded with a lay-in with six second on the clock to cut the deficit to nine at halftime, 30-21.

In the second half, Aliah Curry converted three-consecutive free throws to expand the gap to 12, 33-21.

The Cadets utilized an 8-2 run to move ahead 43-30 with 14 minutes remaining in the contest.

Neufeld nailed a pair of treys to narrow the margin to single digits, 45-38, with 13:07 showing on the clock.

Norwich hit 18 free throws in the final stages of the game to claim the tournament title.

Curry led the Cadets with 29 points and was named the tournament MVP.

Eastern Nazarene shot 33.9% from the field and 36.8% from long range. Norwich connected on 36.1% of its shot attempts on the day, including 3-of-8 from downtown and 29-of-33 from the charity stripe.

The Lions finished the game with 47 rebounds while the Cadets grabbed 38 in the game.

Up next, Eastern Nazarene travels to the Ocean State to face off against Johnson & Wales November 20 at 7 pm.