SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Curry College women's basketball team took to the road to take on the defending Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) champions, Western New England (WNE), in a Wednesday evening battle. After a 73-55 defeat, the Colonels move to 4-13 on the year with a league mark of 2-6. The Golden Bears stay hot, improving to 14-3 with their fourth consecutive victory, while sitting at 7-1 in the CCC.
Curry opened the game on a 5-0 run, but WNE responded by grabbing their first lead of the evening at 6-5. Momentum swung briefly back to the Colonels as they regained the lead at 10-6, but the Golden Bear offense burst out of their early struggles by scoring 16 unanswered points, eventually bringing the score to 22-12 as the first quarter concluded.
The Curry defense found a way to halt the WNE scoring, allowing their hosts to score just two points over the first 3:30 of the second, while cutting the deficit to 24-18. The Golden Bears stretched their lead back to 10 at 28-18 with just under six minutes left on the board, but a 9-1 run by Curry made it a one-possession game at 29-27 as the teams entered the intermission.
The teams traded buckets as the second half got underway, but the hosts were soon able to rebuild their advantage as the Colonels struggled through a seven-minute scoring drought. With 1:30 remaining in the third quarter, a triple by Kathryn Dunn (Hanson, Mass.) got Curry back on the board. However, the Colonels were faced with an uphill climb, as WNE had jumped out to a 46-34 edge, which soon turned into a 51-36 score as the opponents headed into the final stanza.
The Golden Bears continued to roll, as a three-pointer by Julia Quinn (Thomaston, Conn.) brought the score to 61-37, before three different Colonels combined for seven points to bring the deficit back under 20 at 61-44. The Colonels continued to battle, but through the remainder of the contest could not manage to get within 16 points, as WNE put the finishing touches on a 73-55 conference win.
Four players broke double-digit points for the Colonels, topped by Kaitlynn Smith (Hull, Mass.) with 11, while Kirsten Smith (East Bridgewater, Mass.) fell just short with nine. Gina Coote (Dedham, Mass.) topped the team with eight rebounds, while Dunn topped all Curry players with four helpers. Courtney Carlson (Woodbury, Conn.) registered six boards to lead the Golden Bears, while Emily Farrell (New Fairfield, Conn.) dropped 19 points in the win. Farrell and Sydney Fisher (Strafford, N.H.) shared the game-high in assists with five apiece.
The Colonels will return home to take on Roger Williams at 1:00 p.m. in another CCC match-up on Saturday, January 25. The Golden Bears will also get back to action on Saturday, as they host Endicott at 1:00 p.m.
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