MILTON, Mass. – Curry College battled undefeated University of New England to the final buzzer in a 64-47 loss in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action Saturday afternoon in Milton. The Colonels drop to 9-12 overall and 6-8 in the CCC while the Nor'easters improve to 18-3 on the season and stay unbeaten in the conference with a 14-0 record.

Curry jumped out to an early five point lead after a three-pointer from junior Alyssa Keeney (Coventry, Conn.) and a pair of free-throws from freshman Emily Irwin (Billerica, Mass.) to start the first minute and 20 seconds. They held the lead until junior Alicia Brown (Greenland, N.H.) hit a jumper with four minutes left to tie the game at 10. The teams would tie two more times before the end of the quarter and Brown finished out the scoring breaking a tie with hitting both of her attempts from the charity stripe putting UNE up by a point with a score of 16-15 after a quarter.

Both teams traded baskets during the second quarter starting with senior Meghan Gribbin (Windham, Maine) starting the scoring by spreading the Nor'easter's lead by four points with a three-pointer to put the score at 19-15. With four and a half minutes left Irwin tied the game up with a layup and senior Christina Deiorio (Stoughton, Mass.) followed with a jumper of her own to regain the lead for the Colonels and put the score at 22-20. Over the last four minutes, the teams battled to a tie, finishing the half with a score of 24-24.

Irwin and senior Kerry White (Windham, N.H.) led Curry with five points each and White pulled down a team second-best four rebounds. Senior Shannon Griffith (West Hartford, Conn.) led the team with five total rebounds while adding two points. Deiorio finished the half with four points and added a rebound.

Brown led the game for UNE, scoring 11 points and adding three total rebounds. Junior Brooke Flaherty (Portland, Maine) and senior Alanna Vose (Cushing, Maine) came off the bench and pulled down four total rebounds each.

Despite starting the scoring with a Keeney three-pointer, the Nor'easters responded with a 10-0 run to take the lead with a score of 34-27 with under five and a half to play in the quarter. Freshman Molly Plunkett (Quincy, Mass.) got the Colonels back on the board and started more back and forth action with both teams trading baskets. Over the last four minutes the teams battled to a 45-38 score after three full in favor of UNE.

Curry cut the lead down to four points with a layup from Griffith and Keeney followed by hitting all three of her foul shots following a three-point attempt. However, the Nor'easters continued to separate from the Colonels after that and would go onto take the win by a score of 64-47.

Both teams return to conference action on Wednesday evening as Curry hosts Western New England University at 7:30 and UNE hosts Endicott College for a 5:30 tip-off.