Senior forward Ashley Marble (Topsfield, Maine/Woodland) scored the go ahead basket with eight seconds remaining and senior guard Lindsey Welch (Newport, Maine/Nokomis) came up with a game-sealing steal to lead the fifth-ranked University of Southern Maine Huskies to a narrow 73-72 win over Little East Conference rival Eastern Connecticut State Warriors Saturday in Willimantic.
With the win Southern Maine remains undefeated in the LEC at 9-0 and improve to 17-1 overall with its 14th consecutive victory. Eastern Connecticut drops its third straight conference game to dip to 11-8 overall and 4-5 in the LEC. The win was the Huskies 71st consecutive over a conference opponent.
Marble recorded her 10th consecutive and 39th career double-double with a game-high 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Huskies. Junior forward Angela Santa Fe (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) added a career-high 17 points on an outstanding 7-for-9 effort from the field. Sophomore guard Stacey Kent (Northwood, N.H./Coe-Brown Academy), who assisted on Marble’s game-winning basket, added nine-points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
Senior forward Sandy Mosley (Goshen, Conn.) led three Eastern Connecticut players in double-figures with a team-high 20 points, wile sophomore forward Ashley McFetridge (Canton, Conn.) added 16 points and junior guard Sara Paradis (Bristol, Conn.) chipped in with 12 points.
Despite a dismal shooting performance in the first half, Southern Maine headed into the halftime break up by five points, 27-22. The Huskies shot just 36.4 percent (8-for-22) from the field in the opening stanza but were able to pull ahead of the Warriors as Marble and Santa Fe combined to score 23 of the Huskies points.
Eastern Connecticut pulled even with USM in its first two possessions of the second half on a three-pointer from sophomore guard Nicky Morey (Columbia, Conn.) and a jumper from McFetridge. From there both teams traded the lead six times with Eastern Connecticut taking its largest advantage of the game, 43-39, with 11:57 to play on another jumper from McFetridge.
USM stormed back, however, to outscore the Warriors 20-6 over the next 4:48 to open its biggest lead of the contest, 59-49, with 6:49 to play. Marble and junior guard Dawn Ross (Gray, Maine/Gray-New Gloucester) each scored six points in the run with Ross scoring all six of her points on a pair of three-pointers.
Eastern Connecticut fought back with a 14-4 run, led by six points from Mosley, to tie the score at 63 points a piece with 2:48 remaining. The lead exchanged hands nine times over the final minutes of the game as both teams traded baskets down the stretch. Eastern Connecticut’ s Morey gave the Warriors their final lead of the game, 72-71, with 16.9 seconds on the clock when she connected on a bank-shot jumper from the baseline, but Marble answered right back finishing a neatly placed pass from Kent to put the Huskies ahead for good, 73-72, with eight seconds remaining.
With no timeouts left, Eastern Connecticut brought the ball down the court and was working the ball around the perimeter before USM’s Welch stepped into the passing lane and deflected the ball to come up with a game-stopping defensive play for the Huskies. Welch finished the game with five points, two assists, two rebounds and a steal.
Southern Maine returns to action on Wednesday (January 31) at 6 p.m. when it hosts Husson College. Easter Connecticut faces non-conference opponent Salem State on Tuesday (January 30) at 8 p.m.