Women’s Basketball Wins Weekend Matchup at Western New England, 65-60

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.- Four players scored in double-figures to guide the Eastern Nazarene College women's basketball team to a 65-60 victory on the road at Western New England University Saturday afternoon.

The win lifts the Lions to 3-8 on the season and 2-3 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference. The Golden Bears fall to 8-3 overall and 2-2 in league play with the loss.

Mhiah Vickers (Westlake Village, Calif.) registered her third double-double of the season to lead the visitors as she finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Jasmine Mata (Santa Barbara, Calif.) netted 13 points and dished out three assists. Nicole Greer (Odenton, Md.) poured in 12 points off the bench while Elia Salazar (Los Angeles, Calif.) notched 11 points and six boards.

The guests grabbed a 14-10 lead with 12:25 remaining in the opening half as Mata banked in a layup.

Eastern Nazarene pushed its advantage to six points on a put-back layup by Vickers with 8:28 on the clock, 20-14.

Western New England went ahead by one point with 3:37 left to play on a lay-in by Chelsea Vujs, 23-22.

Jordan Grays (Elk Grove, Calif.) scored her only bucket of the afternoon with 1:21 remaining in the half to put the Lions up 26-25.

Amanda Lopez beat the buzzer with a jumper to give the Golden Bears a 27-26 edge at the midway point of the contest.

Vickers and Greer each tallied eight first-half points for the Lions while Salazar contributed with four points.

Eastern Nazarene shot 41.9% from the field in the opening frame and Western New England posted a field-goal percentage of 44.8% through 20 minutes of action.

The home team established a six-point lead 3:48 into the second stanza as Samantha McCann drained a jump shot, 36-30.

The Lions clawed back to regain a 50-49 edge as Kristina Kaczmarek (Chatsworth, Calif.) connected on a jumper with less than eight minutes left to play before Salazar tossed in a layup to cap off a 10-0 run to widen the gap to 56-49.

Eastern Nazarene converted 3-of-8 attempts from the charity stripe in the final minute of regulation to seal its second conference win of the year.

The Lions finished the contest with a field-goal percentage of 46.6% while connecting on 42.9% of their three-point attempts. The Golden Bears shot 41.7% from the floor on the day despite 2-of-12 shooting from behind the arc.

Looking ahead, Eastern Nazarene will play Wentworth January 13 in a game that was rescheduled from January 8.