Women's Basketball Captures Mariner Classic Championship

CASTINE, Maine – The Bridgewater State University women's basketball team used a suffocating defense to force 34 turnovers en route to a 68-48 win over Maine Maritime in the Mariner Classic Championship game.

The Bears improved to 2-0 while MMA dropped to 1-1. Colby won the consolation game with a 63-51 win over Maine-Fort Kent.

Elisha Homich paced BSU with 17 points while teammates Megan Boutilette and Michaela Cosby pumped in 14 and 12, respectively. Boutilette and Cosby both pulled down eight boards which led to an All-Tournament selection for Boutilette and the MVP award for Cosby.

Leah Jackson and Bekah Campbell each scored a team-high 11 points for MMA. Jackson and Courtney DuFour were selected to the All-Tournament team for the Mariners.

Bridgewater State took an early 10-2 lead, sparked by Homich's four points, before the Mariners closed the gap to three, 10-7, with 14:15 left in the first half. Rachel Kusz's layup at 13:05 put the Bears ahead 15-7 before MMA scored seven unanswered. Layups from Hanna Lyons and Campbell and a trey by Kari Jones put the Mariners within one, 15-14, with 10:10 left.

Bridgewater built its first half lead to 10, 24-14, at 5:03 on a pair of free throws from Boutilette and the Mariners answered with a 10-3 scoring run spanning nearly five minutes to trail by three, 27-24. Campbell dropped four points in the run while DuFour, Casey Everest and Jackson all netted two. BSU scored twice in the final 30 seconds, with a jumper by Cosby and a layup from Alana Watkins, to lead 31-24 at the break.

The Bears opened the second half with a 22-5 scoring run to lead by 24, 53-29, at 11:59 and never their lead dip below 15 for the remainder the game.

In the consolation game, Colby's Diana Manduca netted a team-high 16 points, added five assists and nine rebounds, to lead the Mules to a 61-51 win over Maine-Fort Kent. Colby improved to 1-1 while the Bengals fell to 0-2.

Jen Nale and Mia Diplock added 15 and 13 points, respectively, while MFK was led by a double-double from Ericka Christensen (19 points, 11 rebounds) and Taylor Boucher's 12 points. Manduca and Christensen were selected to the All-Tournament team.

Maine-Fort Kent jumped out to a short-lived 7-2 lead early in the contest behind three points from Jennifer Colopitts and two each by Christensen and Kendashia Myles. Colby responded with a 25-10 scoring run to take 27-17 lead with Jamie Wallace's jumper at 3:33. Manduca's layup with 33 seconds left in the half gave Colby a 36-24 halftime lead.

The Bengals clawed their way back early in the second half to close the gap to seven, 43-36, before Manduca netted seven straight points to put Colby ahead 50-38 with 11:26 left in the game. Brooke Chandor gave the Mules its largest lead with a layup at 6:49 and Colby's lead would not fall below nine the rest of the game.