It was a tough Saturday for the Owls’ women’s basketball team; after a fourth quarter comeback, they fell short in double overtime to the UMass Boston Beacons. This was the second Little East Conference (LEC) game for both teams.
Throughout the first three quarters, it was all UMass Boston in control, outscoring the Owls. The Beacons jumped out early with a commanding 10-3 lead over the Owls, but not before first-year forward Kenzie Bennett hit two three-pointers to cut the deficit. Through the first, the Owls stayed with it as they found themselves trailing 15-12.
In the eighth second, the Beacons took over again, charging up a 7-0 run, but not before senior forward Amanda Petrow pushed up the court for a layup and junior guard Lydia Vital sank a three -pointer with three minutes left to cut the lead. Going into the half, the Beacons led the Owls 35-26. Petrow led the Owls with nine points in the first half and junior guard Sandi Purcell had seven points.
The start of the second half didn’t show much promise for the Owls, as they found themselves down by 20 points with just a few minutes left. Once again, the Owls went on a run, scoring the final six points of the third quarter.
Jacob Paquin/ Equinox Staff
Heading into the fourth quarter, the Owls trailed the Beacons 50-36. Things started to turn around for the Owls, who were down by 14, when starters Purcell, Petrow and Stephanie D’Annolfo took charge in a 26-point fourth quarter.
Heading toward the end of the game, the Owls switched their focus point. D’Annolfo said, “We always say to each other, ‘This is not over, there is still a lot of time in this game.’ We wanted to focus on the stop score stop score.”
At a crucial point in the game with just nine seconds left on the clock, Vital put away two free throws to tie the score up 62-62.
The Owls jumped out in the first overtime, getting a quick six-point lead with help from sophomore Emily McPadden, hitting a three-pointer.
Later in the quarter, the Owls had a commanding five-point lead, but not before UMass Boston’s top scorer Raven Kelsey sank a three-pointer and put away two free throws to tie the game up 70-70.
The second overtime would be slower paced until the Beacons got up 73-72 and did not look back, outscoring the Owls 15-6 to finish the game with a final score of 88-78.
Senior D’Annolfo said, “The difference was that they were making shots and we were not.”
This put the Owls at a 6-4 overall record and in a four-way tie at 1-1 for third place in the LEC.
The Owls’ women’s basketball team will have 20 days off before their next game on Dec. 30 at UMass Lowell.
Joe Cortese can be contacted at Jcortese@kscequinox.com
