MILTON, Mass. – Curry College junior Emily Irwin (Billerica, Mass.) tallied a game-high 20 points, including her benchmark 1,000th in a 58-49 conference loss to visiting Gordon College in a Commonwealth Coast Conference clash on Saturday afternoon at the Katz Gymnasium. With the victory, the Fighting Scots improve to 6-11 overall and 4-6 in the CCC. The Colonels drop to 9-8 overall and 5-5 in league play.
Jess Ryan (Milford, N.H.) led the way for Gordon with 17 points and added eight rebounds in the victory. Sarah Gibbs (Elizabethtown, Pa.) chipped in a double-double of 16 points and 11 boards in 38 minutes. The sophomore also pitched in with six assists. Meghan Foley (Malden, Mass.) and Brooke Dyson (Houston, Texas) closed out the Fighting Scots in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Irwin paced Curry with 20 points, all of which came in the second half. The junior shot 7-for-37 from the floor while adding 11 rebounds, four assists, and eight steals in 36 minutes. The 37 field goal attempts registers a new single-game record for the Colonels. Molly Plunkett (Quincy, Mass.) and Nicole Rice (Woburn, Mass.) each recorded double-doubles on the contest. Plunkett put up 12 points and 10 boards while Rice finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
After Gordon jumped out to a 10-3 lead nearly halfway through the first quarter, Curry used an 8-0 run, capped off by a jumper by Gina Coote (Dedham, Mass.) for their first lead of the contest. The squads traded threes before the close of the stanza in the opening quarter as the Colonels held a slim lead at the end of one, 14-13.
Three-pointers on back-to-back possessions by Dyson and Ryan gave the Fighting Scots a five-point lead with 7:26 left in the second quarter. The game stayed between a three and six-point deficit for the remainder of the half as a three-pointer by Rice pulled Curry to within three, but Gibbs answered right back to hit a layup to give Gordon a 27-22 lead at the intermission.
The Colonels opened the third quarter on a 7-0 run to grab their first lead since the first quarter, 29-27. Six quick points from the Fighting Scots pushed the lead to four and would go between two and four points for the rest of the frame. Gordon would have a 39-35 lead heading into the final quarter of action.
The Fighting Scots outscored Curry 19-14 in the fourth quarter, as the lead would reach as many as nine when Gibbs knocked down two free throws to make the score 54-45 with 44 seconds left in regulation. A layup by Caroline Kilduff (Rockland, Mass.) cut the Gordon lead to seven with 21 seconds to go, but two successful shots at the charity stripe by Ryan gave the Fighting Scots the 58-49 victory.
Curry finished with a 59-50 advantage on the glass and shot 21 percent for the game. Gordon checked in at 35 percent but shot 5-for-18 from long range.
Curry will next play at Wentworth on Wednesday, January 24 at 5:30 p.m. Gordon returns to action at home against the University of New England on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
