Hancock Bucket Gives Trinity Women's Basketball Dramatic Win At Keene State

Keene, N.H. - Junior guard Abigail Hancock (Casco, Maine) recovered an errant inbounds pass and hit a lay-up as time expired enabling the visiting Trinity College Bantams to defeat the Keene State College Owls, 51-49, in a women's basketball game at Spaulding Gym this evening. Trinity improves to 2-1 with its second victory in a row, while Keene State suffers its first loss of the season to fall to 2-1.

After trailing, 13-6, in the first half, Trinity scored the last six points of the first half, the final two coming on a beat- the-clock basket by junior forward Shantel Hanniford (Nantucket, Mass.), that gave the Bantams a 26-23 lead at the break. Trinity took the lead despite committing 18 first half turnovers. Trinity continued its run, scoring the first eight points of the second half to take a 34-23 lead on a lay-up by junior guard Moriah Sweeney (Ramsey, N.J.).

The Owls battled back from an 11-point second half deficit, as senior Siobhan Carnell (Quincy, Mass.) scored three straight baskets to pull the Owls even 40-all with 8:32 to play.
After Trinity went up 49-46 on five straight points by junior forward Taylor Murtaugh (New York, N.Y.), Keene State tied the game again on a three-pointer by freshman Ryanne Williams (Norwell, Mass.). The Owls had several chances to take the lead at the end of the game missing a pair of free throws and a jumper before the game-ending inbounds play.
Keene State slapped the loose ball toward the Trinity basket, and Hancock grabbed it and scored it as time expired for the clinching bucket.

Murtaugh led the Bantams with a game-high 22 points. Freshman center MacKenzie Griffin (Stamford, Conn.) and Hanniford each had seven rebounds. Carnell led the Owls' comeback, scoring 12 of her team-high 16 points in the second half to go with seven rebounds and three steals. Sophomore points guard Rachael Brucks (Suwanee, Geo.) also scored in double figures for Keene State with 10 points.