Box Score

BIDDEFORD, Maine -- The University of New England women's basketball team scored the first 12 points of the night and never looked back, chalking up a 73-32 victory over Wentworth Institute of Technology in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) opener Wednesday (Nov. 28) at the Harold Alfond Forum.

Senior Beth Suggs (Bath, Maine) and first-year Meghan Gribbin (Windham, Maine) each went for 14 points to lead the Nor'easters (3-1, 1-0 CCC), who defeated the Leopards for the seventh straight meeting. Suggs also pulled in 15 rebounds for her third double-double in four games, and Gribbin made all but one of her seven field goal tries on the evening.

UNE first-year Lauren Hayden (Chantilly, Va.) added 11 points to go with six steals, while classmates Michaela Flanagan (Plymouth, Mass.) and Alanna Vose (Cushing, Maine) chipped in with nine and eight points, respectively. Sophomores Kendra Dawless (West Greenwich, R.I.) and Kelly Coleman (Portland, Conn.) combined for 11 points and 13 boards.

For Wentworth (2-2, 0-1 CCC), senior Jordan Biggar (Beverly, Mass.) tallied a team-high nine points to pace the Leopards, who got six points apiece from senior Ashley Conway (Danvers, Mass.), junior Kendra Kerr (Marshfield, Mass.), and first-year Carly Rogers (Scarborough, Maine). Rogers also had 10 rebounds.

Big Blue scored 43 points off of 34 Leopards turnovers, and finished with sizable advantages in the paint (40-12) and on the break (20-3). The Nor'easters out-rebounded their opponents by a 52-35 margin, corralling 25 boards on the offensive glass.

After UNE saw its fast start level off at a 26-15 cushion with 8:31 left in the first half, the hosts rattled off the next 16 points to build the margin up to 27 (42-15) just before the break. Five different players scored during the stretch.

Neither side was able to generate much offense early on in the second period, as the UNE lead was just 46-19 more than four minutes into the stanza. A steal by Hayden -- one of the team's 20 -- seemed to get the Nor'easters going again, as the ensuing layup sparked a 21-3 run over an eight-minute span that vaulted the difference to 45 (67-22).

UNE heads to Salve Regina University on Saturday (1 p.m.) for its next match, while Wentworth is back at home the same day and time for a date with Eastern Nazarene College.