Women’s Hoops Endures 61-55 Setback at Wentworth

BOSTON, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene women's basketball team absorbed a 61-55 loss on the road at Wentworth Institute of TechnologyThursday evening at Tansey Gymnasium.

The Lions slide to 4-8 on the season and 0-5 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference with the result. The Leopards improved to 4-7 and 1-4 in league play with the victory.

Abbie Tonello (Bourne, Mass.) paced Eastern Nazarene with 14 points and nine boards off the bench. Ruby Leon (Fairfield, Calif.) finished with nine points, five assists and four steals. Nicole Greer (Odenton, Md.) scored six points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. Tyshay Montgomery (Woodlawn, Md.) chipped in with six points and three rebounds while Krystal Holl (Hagerstown, Md.) registered five points and six boards.

After knotting the score at 6-6 with 15:22 to play in the half, the Lions claimed their first lead of the evening on a put-back lay-up by Greer with 13:57 remaining.

The two sides traded the lead for the remainder of the opening stanza.

Montgomery tossed in a left-handed lay-up with less than a minute left in the first period to give Eastern Nazarene a 25-24 edge.

The Leopards reclaimed the lead with 34 seconds on the clock as Carly Rogers converted a pair of free throws to give the home team a 26-25 advantage at the break.

Tonello scored a team-best seven points in the first half while adding four rebounds. Holl notched five points and two boards in the opening 20 minutes of play.

The visitors headed into the halftime intermission with a field-goal percentage of 40.7%. The hosts connected on 31.8% of their attempts in the first frame.

Wentworth opened the second half with seven consecutive points to grab a 33-25 lead with 16:46 left to play.

Eastern Nazarene got on the board 3:48 into the second stanza on a free throw by Tonello. The basket sparked an 11-0 run to put the Lions ahead 36-33 with 12:52 to go.

The Leopards used a 10-0 stretch to claim a 54-45 edge with two minutes remaining in regulation.

The visitors cut the deficit to six with 31 seconds left to play on a lay-in by Tonello, 59-53.

After a made free throw by the home side, Montgomery knocked down a jumper to trim the margin to five with 13 seconds on the clock.

Kendra Kerr sank a free throw in the waning seconds of the contest to seal Wentworth's first conference win of the season.

Eastern Nazarene shot 37.1% from the field in the contest while being limited to 0-for-7 shooting from three-point distance. Wentworth finished the game with a field-goal percentage of 28.0% and drained one trey on eight attempts.

Up next, Eastern Nazarene heads to Western New England for a weekend clash January 11.