Women’s Basketball Overcomes Halftime Deficit to Secure GNAC Win

NEWTON, Mass. – The Regis College women's basketball team battled back from a seven-point halftime deficit to defeat the Lasell Lasers early Saturday afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) game at Lasell, 68-49. 

Katryna Veasey (Quincy, Mass.) led all Pride players with a team-high 14 points and 10 rebounds, earning the second double-double of her career.  Maura Russell (Braintree, Mass.) shot 44 percent from the field on a night that saw four of her three-point attempts fall to finish with 12 points, while Valerie Martin (Derry, N.H.) went 5-for-9 including a three-pointer for 11 points while pulling in six boards. 

With the Pride leading by six just over four minutes into the game, Lasell's Jaime Caron found Amanda Ortiz who was able to score the team's first basket of the game. With the Lasers trailing 10-8 with 2:57 to go in the first, Brenna Muir went to the basket making her layup attempt, drawing a foul, and converting the free-throw attempt to give the Lasers the lead. After an Arie Searcy (Santa Rosa, Calif.) free throw, the first of her nine points, the first quarter would end with the two teams tied, 11-11. 

After trading baskets for the first eight minutes of the second quarter, Ortiz and the Lasers were able to push their lead to six with a layup a minute and a half before the break. Ortiz would score six points in the span of a minute to push the lead to as many as 10. Off a pass from Nikki Bitinaitis (Cromwell, Conn.), who would record five assists on the game, Veasey would score on a layup while being fouled and convert the free throw to bring the halftime score to 32-25 in favor of the Lasers. 

After four points from Martin and a bucket from Searcy, the Pride closed the deficit to one until a three-pointer from Liz Bougie brought the Lasers' lead back to four.  The Pride finally took the lead 4:29 into the third quarter when Russell fired a three-pointer to make the score 38-35.  The Pride would outscore Lasell in the third quarter 30-9, giving them a 14-point edge going into the final quarter of play, 55-41.  

Lasell (5-10, 0-3 GNAC) would commit only 12 turnovers while forcing Regis into 24 turnovers. Ortiz would score a game-high 25 points, plus register four steals and two blocks in her effort on the defensive end.  Ortiz also led the team in rebounds with nine.  

Regis (6-11, 2-3 GNAC) will play on Tuesday, Jan. 22 when the Pride travel to play Suffolk in another GNAC contest. They will then return home next Saturday, Jan. 26, for a conference tilt against the Wildcats of Johnson & Wales.