Milestone Season Comes to A Close

The Suffolk University Women's Basketball team fell, 51-42 in Sunday's Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division-III New England Championship game to Castleton State College.

The loss ends the 2012-13 campaign for the Rams as they finish the season with a 23-7 record. It was a historic year for the Rams as their 23 victories hold as the most ever by a Suffolk University basketball team for a season.

Senior Jacqueline Vienneau (Salem, N.H.) finished the day leading all scorers with 15 points for the Rams as she moves into third place all-time in scoring in the program. Vienneau wraps up a four-year career with 1,273 points scored, while already holding the program record with 455 assists.

Junior Jennifer Ruys (Wallingford, Conn.) tallied nine points on the day as her 489 points scored during the year is the third highest total for a season among Suffolk University Women's Basketball players. Ruys also blocked six shots on the day as she set the Suffolk single season record for stuffs with 52 on the year.

Sophomore Iliana Quadri (Sudbury, Mass.) made one three-point field-goal on the day as she shot at a 43.6-percent rate from beyond the arc this season, the best shooting percentage in program history.

Things did not go the Rams way on Sunday afternoon as they trailed throughout the entire contest. It took the Rams nearly six and a half minutes before they finally connected on their first field-goal to start the contest as the Spartans jumped out early in the first half.

Neither team could do much offensively in the contest as both teams combined to shoot 30-percent from the floor on the day. Castelton State was able to take a 24-16 lead into halftime with them.

The Spartans would continue to have things go their way to start the second half as a layup by sophomore Meghan O'Sullivan (North Merrick, N.Y.) would give them their largest lead of the contest at ten points, 28-18 two minutes into the period.

The Rams would continue to hang around however as a 15-foot jumper by freshman Katie Murray (Holden, Mass.) would bring the Rams within five points at the 13:24 mark.

A three-pointer by sophomore Jade Desroches (Berkshire, Vt.) seemed to bring some momentum back to the Spartans as they regained an eight-point spread halfway through the second half, but much like Saturday's win the Rams would start a late offensive charge to get them back in the thick of things.

The Rams would go on an 11-4 run over a three minute span that was capped by a layup and  three-pointer off the hands of Vienneau to bring them within one point, 40-39 at the 6:33 mark. That was as close as Suffolk would get though as they could not find the shot to bring them over the hurdle.

Junior Shelby LaBarge (St. Albans, Vt.) would score four straight points for the Spartans and junior Alyssa Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) would connect on back-to-back free-throws to space out Castleton back to a five-point spread with four minutes remaining.

Desroches then struck with the dagger at the 1:47 marker as she sunk a three-pointer from the corner to build the Spartans' lead back up to seven points before a pair of Leonard free-throws closed out the game.

Leonard finished the day with a team-high 14 points.

Desroches netted 13 off the bench for the Spartans highlighted by a 3-for-6 performance from three-point land.

Senior Kelly Conway (Rutland, Vt.) was tabbed as Outstanding Player for the three game ECAC Tournament.

Vienneau netted 15 points in the game to go along with six rebounds and three assists.

Ruys grabbed a team-high seven boards off the glass to add to her nine points in the game.

Sophomore Shelby Santini (Winchester, Mass.) scored eight points for the Rams, while Quadri chipped in with seven.

Castleton State finishes off the year with a 28-2 record this season. They entered the tournament as the number one seed as hosted all three games this weekend.