Emerson Snaps Women's Basketball Six Game Win Streak

Senior Shannon Norton (Middletown, N.J.) hit the go-ahead jumper with eight seconds remaining to lift the Emerson College Lions past the Suffolk University Rams, 65-64 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Women's Basketball action on Saturday afternoon.

It was a tight back and forth contest that saw no team lead by more than seven points, while the score was tied on seven different occassions and each team swapped leads a combined six times.

Sophomore Kristin Brice (Indiana, Pa.) led all scorers with 24 points in the contest for the Lions, who improve to 7-11 on the year and 3-4 in GNAC action.

The loss snaps a season-high six game win streak for Suffolk who now move to 13-5 on the year, while they drop their first conference game and stand at 5-1 on the year.

Senior Jennifer Ruys (Wallingford, Conn.) led the Rams with 22 points, including a monster first half as she scored 14 to give the Rams a 36-31 edge heading into the break.

Both teams would go back and forth for the majority of the second half before freshman Kelsey Johnson (Syracuse, N.Y.) would score nine of eleven Emerson points over a five minute span as the Lions would take a 63-62 lead with 1:31 remaining in regulation.

Sophomore Iliana Quadri (Sudbury, Mass.) would give the Rams back the lead as she scored two of her 10 points in the second half twenty seconds later.

Both teams would miss field-goal opportunities on their ensuing possesions before a Suffolk turnover with twenty-two seconds on the clock set up Norton's game-clinching shot.

Both teams were opposites from each other in the first and second halves. Emerson shot 34.5-percent as a team from the field in the opening twenty minutes, before rebounding in the second half shooting 42.9-percent. On the flip side, Suffolk shot 48.3-percent as a team in the first half, before shooting 32.4-percent as a team in the following 20 minutes.

Suffolk held a 43-22 edge in rebounds in the game, highlighted by another double-double by Ruys who recorded a team-high 10 boards. Ruys has posted four double-doubles in six GNAC contests this year.

Senior Jacqueline Vienneau (Salem, N.H.) was one of four Suffolk players to post double digits in scoring. She netted 11 points, along with seven rebounds and a game-high seven assists. Senior Dominique Demar (Colchester, Conn.) joined her, Ruys and Quadri as she finished the game with 12 points.

Brice finished the game with team-highs in points (24) and rebounds (7), while she was 7-for-9 in the contest from the free-throw line.

Johnson scored 11 of her game's 14 points in the second half as she was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in that span. Norton finished the game with 11 points for the Lions.

Both teams will be back in GNAC action on Wednesday evening. Emerson will travel to Lasell College for a 7:00pm showdown with the Lasers. Suffolk heads to Nashua, N.H. for a 7:00pm tip-off with the Rivier University Raiders.