LYNDONVILLE, Vt., The Husson Eagles manufactured a 15-point halftime lead Friday night on their way to a 74-57 North Atlantic Conference women’s basketball victory over Lyndon State.
Amanda Gifford set the tone for Husson University of Bangor (6-7, 6-1 NAC) with 17 points, six rebounds and five assists. Steph Comstock scored 13 points and Bre Hanscom contributed 12 points and seven rebounds.
Donna Lawson scored a game-high 20 points for Lyndon State (4-8, 3-4 NAC). Naomie White registered 13 points and nine rebounds as the Hornets outrebounded the Eagles 59-37.
MMA 74, Johnson State 54
At Johnson, Vt., Maggie Smith drained six 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 29 points to power Maine Maritime Academy to a North Atlantic Conference victory over Johnson State.
Sam Goda provided a double-double with 22 points and 16 rebounds for MMA (6-6, 3-3 NAC), which outrebounded the Badgers 30-20.
Brittany Robertson led Johnson State (3-10, 1-6 NAC) with 16 points. Andrea Deuell provided 13 points.
Bowdoin 57, Tufts 56
At Medford, Mass., Sara Binkorst hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 56 seconds left as the Polar Bears closed the game on a 7-2 run to record the victory.
Jill Henrikson scoed 19 points to lead 10-3 Bowdoin and snap Tufts’ 11-game winning streak. Binkhorst chipped in with 15 points and Amy Hackett added 10 to go with four assists.
Liz Moynihan paced 11-3 Tufts with 13 points.
Colby 67, Bates 57
At Lewiston, Diana Manduca led five Colby players in double figures as the No. 24 nationally ranked Mules defeated rival Bates.
Manduca scored 15 points to lead 10-1 Colby, Jil Vaughan added 13 and Aarika Ritchie put in 11. Jacky McLaughlin and Rachael Mack each added 10. Vaughan also had seven rebounds and Ritchie had seven assists.
Meredith Kelly scored 14 points to lead 6-8 Bates and Molly Brown added 12.
ECSU 63, UMPI 45
At Willimantic, Conn., Eastern Connecticut State University outscored UMaine-Presque Isle 15-2 over the final six minutes of the first half to erase an eight-point deficit en route to the victory Thursday night.
Shannon McCourt paced 6-7 ECSU with 19 points.
Rashell Saucier scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead 4-9 UMPI. Liron Albag added seven points and Renee Moore and Olivia McNally each put in six.
Men’s Basketball
Husson 82, Lyndon State 66
At Lyndon Center, Vt., sophomore guard Luis Medina made his season debut and scored a team-high 19 points to spark the Eagles to the North Atlantic Conference victory.
Marc Zaharchuk contributed 17 points and nine rebounds for Husson (4-9, 4-3 NAC), which built an 18-point first-half advantage. Phil Leighton finished with 14 points and four assists while Mike Gonzales posted 12 points.
Jason Gray paced Lyndon State (0-13, 0-7 NAC) with 13 points and 11 rebounds. John Williams tallied 12 points, while Ben Sackett and Asa Smith added 11 points each.
Johnson Sate 73, MMA 53
At Johnson, Vt., Scott Moran scored 21 points and the Badgers shot 55 percent from the field to earn a North Atlantic Conference win over the Mariners.
Bryan Hickey tallied 16 points for Johnson State (3-10, 3-4 NAC), which outrebounded the Mariners 34-19.
Andy Ball paced Maine Maritime Academy of Castine (2-11, 1-6 NAC) with 16 points and Shawn Dostie grabbed 11 rebounds.
ECSU 83, UMPI 51
At Willimantic, Conn., Chris Robitaille hit 10 of 12 shots from the field and finished with 21 points to lead Eastern Connecticut State University to its 10th straight win Thursday night.
Aaron Hutchins paced 2-9 UMPI with 18 points, Gerardo Vasquez added 11 and Patrick Manifold netted 10.
Bates 66, Colby 55
At Lewiston, the Bobcats outscored the Mules 39-23 in the second half to earn a NESCAC win over their instate rivals.
John Squires paced a balanced effort for Bates (7-6, 1-2 NESCAC) with 17 points and 20 rebounds. Ed Bogdanovich scored 14 points, Mark Brust netted 13 and Reid Christian posted 11 for the Bobcats.
Shane Rogers led Colby College of Waterville (4-9, 0-2 NESCAC) with 13 points. Connor O’Neill provided 12 points and Eric Beaulieu chipped in with 10.
Tufts 82, Bowdoin 70
At Medford, Mass., Kwame Firempong scored 20 points to help the Jumbos beat the Polar Bears in NESCAC action.
Ben Ferris tallied 17 points and Alex Orchowski posted 15 for Tufts.
Will Hanley scored 21 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and handed out five assists to propel Bowdoin College of Brunswick. Ryan O’Connell contributed 13 points and Keegan Pieri added nine.
South Florida 56, Seton Hall 55
At Tampa, Fla., given the chance to make a good impression, South Florida capitalized.
Ron Anderson scored 14 points and helped the Bulls come back to make No. 24 Seton Hall’s return to the rankings look like a short one with a 56-55 win Friday night.
Anderson had six points in a game-ending 14-3 run, Jawanza Poland made a long 3-pointer to tie it at 53 and Toaryln Fitzpatrick’s three-point play put the Bulls (10-8, 3-2 Big East) ahead for good with just under a minute to go.
“It says a lot about our team,” Anderson said. “We really wanted this win. I think everybody could see that.”
Seton Hall, ranked for the first time in 11 years, trimmed its deficit to one on its only field goal in the final six minutes. Jordan Theodore led the Pirates (15-3, 4-2) with 16 points but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity with a chance to put his team ahead with 3.8 seconds remaining.
“I think they’re a top-tier (Big East) team, especially at home,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “They’re going to be in every game because of their size.”
South Florida outscored Seton Hall 14-2 on second-chance points.
Poor offensive execution against USF’s 1-3-1 zone doomed Seton Hall down the stretch. Coming out of a timeout during the crucial stretch in which Anderson made a layup and Poland followed with his 3-pointer that wiped out the remainder of what had been a 10-point lead, the Pirates had two turnovers and a shot clock violation.
“Our guys really hung tough,” USF coach Stan Heath said. “There’s a lot of big plays made offensively and defensively.”
Heath added it was huge to beat a top-25 opponent.
“We knew Seton Hall was on a roll,” Heath said. “In our league you’re going to get a lot of opportunities with so many good teams. It’s something that we need to do because we want to have a good year.”
Patrik Auda’s putback with 24 seconds remaining was Seton Hall’s only field goal after Aaron Cosby’s 3-pointer put the Pirates up 52-42.
Fuquan Edwin scored a career-high 28 points Tuesday night to help the Pirates cruise past DePaul in their first game as a ranked team since 2001. Facing the Big East’s second-ranked scoring defense turned out to be a much bigger challenge in the largely empty 20,000-seat Tampa Bay Times Forum as the sophomore was limited to four points on 2-of-5 shooting.
USF tied it 27-27 at the half on a 3-pointer by Poland, who missed a critical free throw late to give Seton Hall a chance to win it at the end. The Bulls led 33-29 before going cold from the field and gradually watching Theodore and Haralds Karlis lead an 18-5 run that seemingly put Seton Hall in control.
“Coach, he’s been harping on all season, just play for a full 40 minutes, Anderson said. “We’ve had a lot games this season where we haven’t put together a complete 40. We played 40 minutes tonight. If we don’t quit, things fall in your favor and we saw that tonight.”
Theodore began the push with a pair of layups, then made a long 3-pointer to put the Pirates on top. Karlis, a 6-foot-5 freshman from Latvia who was averaging just 3.2 points per game, added the next nine points in the surge to put the Pirates up 47-38. Cosby’s 3-pointer gave them their biggest lead of the night with six minutes to go.
The loss stopped Seton Hall’s four-game winning streak. The Pirates, off to their best start in the Big East since the 1999-2000 season, have won 12 of their past 14. The only other loss during that stretch was to top-ranked Syracuse.