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Megan Methven scored all 11 of her points in the first half. |
Easton, Mass. - Kelsey Simonds (Middleboro, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) scored all 14 of her points in the second half, including the final four of the game to catapult the No. 1 seeded Skyhawks into their first Northeast-10 Tournament Championship game since 1998 with a 53-51 win over the No. 4 seed Bentley on Friday evening at Merkert Gymnasium.
The win also marks the first time since 1986-87 that Stonehill has beaten Bentley three times in a single season.
Stonehill, now 25-4, have the most wins in a season since the 1996-97 team went 26-6 and advanced to the regional finals.
The Skyhawks will face sixth-seeded Bryant, who pulled off an improbable 78-65 upset of second-seeded Franklin Pierce on the road on Friday night. Stonehill and the Bulldogs split their two meetings this season, with each team winning on their home court.
Simonds, who was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, scored the first six Stonehill points of the second stanza, helping the Skyhawks erase a 30-29 halftime deficit.
Following a Bethany Tighe (North Easton, Mass./Oliver Ames) triple, Stonehill moved in front 38-34. The lead grew to as many as seven at 45-38 on another Tighe basket with a little more than eight minutes to go.
The Skyhawk advantage might have been greater, but Stonehill, the best free throw shooting team in the Northeast-10, went 7-for-14 from the line in the game and 5-for-12 in the second half alone.
The Falcons, who only mustered 38 points on their last visit to Stonehill, went on a 13-4 run to take the lead at 51-49 on a basket by freshman Kim Brennan with 2:09 remaining.
Simonds then split a pair of free throws on back-to-back possessions to knot the score at 51 apiece with 1:29 left.
An excellent interior feed from Tighe to Simonds gave Stonehill the lead at 53-51 with 55 seconds left and a Bentley turnover gave the Skyhawks the ball with the lead and less than 40 second left on the clock.
Simonds missed an inside layup as the shot clock expired and the Falcons got the ball in the hands of Brennan, who sprinted the length of the court and attacked the basket before being fouled with two seconds left. After missing the first free throw, she missed the second intentionally, and Erika Stupinski (Topsham, Maine/Mount Ararat) was sent to the line. She missed both attempts, giving the Falcons one last shot but Ashley Bruton's half court attempt wouldn't have counted had it gone in.
Both teams shot 39 percent from the field, but the Skyhawks held the Falcons to just 29 percent in the second half, including a 0-for-8 display from behind the arc.
Simonds' 14 points were a game high and she added six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Now with 64 blocks this season, she passes Sue Patchett for the single season school record.
Tighe registered 13 points and six rebounds, while Megan Methven (Corning, N.Y./Corning Painted Post-East), who kept the Skyhawks close with offense early in the game, finished with 11. Erin Gray (Clifton Park, N.Y.) chipped in with four points and a game-high eight rebounds off the bench in 17 minutes.
Vanessa Lux paced Bentley with 13 points, while Kristy McLean added 10 points, six boards and four steals.
