Boutilette Leads Women's Basketball to 91-54 Rout of MCLA in Regular Season Finale

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Junior forward Megan Boutilette (Charlton, Mass.) posted a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds to lead the visiting Bridgewater State University Bears to a convincing 91-54 MASCAC women's basketball victory over MCLA on Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both schools.

The Bears, who had already wrapped up the MASCAC regular season title, improve to 21-3 overall and 11-1 in conference play.  Bridgewater will be the top seed in next week's MASCAC Tournament and will have a first round bye.  MCLA closes the 2012-2013 campaign with an 8-17 mark (0-12 MASCAC).

Boutilette, who recorded her 11th career double-double, also added seven steals and four assists.  She now has 93 steals on the year which is second only to Melissa Murphy's single-season program mark of 106 set in 2005-2006.

The Bears finished with an astounding 29 assists on 35 made field goals on the afternoon.  They also forced MCLA into 27 turnovers and scored 33 points off the Trailblazer's miscues.  Bridgewater dominated the inside game as well, as the Bears outscored the Trailblazers, 46-14, in the paint.

Bridgewater led from the onset scoring the game's first ten points.  MCLA would cut the lead to six, but the Bears ultimately would extend their advantage back to double figures for the remainder of the opening half.  They led by as many as 19 points (30-11) following an Alana Watkins (Wareham, Mass.) layup with 7:57 left until halftime.  The Trailblazers would pull to within 13 on two occasions before Bridgewater settled on a 43-27 halftime lead.

The second half was more of the same for Bridgewater.  BSU scored the first nine points out of the locker room and never looked back.  They eventually pushed out to their largest lead at 80-40 after junior guard Colleen Hanscom (Melrose, Mass.) drained one of the Bears' seven three pointers on the day.

Senior guard Michaela Cosby (Walpole, Mass.) also finished with 16 points for the Bears, while Hanscom chipped in with 15 points, including three trifectas, to go along with five rebounds and three steals.  Junior guard Jenna Williamson (Ludlow, Mass.) added 14 points and four assists.  Cosby increased her career scoring total to 1,030 points as she moved past BSU Hall of Famer JoAnn Runge (1,023 pts.) into 11th place on the Bears' all-time scoring list.

MCLA was led by senior guard Lucy Tremblay (East Greenbush, N.Y.) who scored a game-high 21 points.  She also added 8 rebounds and five steals. Tremblay, who tallied eight of her 21 points at the free throw line, was just 1-for-8 from three-point range.  Sophomore forward Danielle Beauchamp (Cohoes, N.Y.) came off the bench to score 12 points for the Trailblazers.

Bridgewater shot 47.9% (35-73) from the floor including 7-for-16 (43.8%) from behind the arc.  The Bears dominated the boards with a 52-33 rebounding advantage led by Boutilette's 16 boards (six offensive).

MCLA struggled to shoot the ball from beginning to end as the Trailblazers connected on just 29.8% (17-57) of their field goal attempts with a 4-for-18 (22.2%) performance from three-point range.

Prior to the start of the game, MCLA paid tribute to seniors Tremblay and Johanna Miner (Greenfield, Mass.) who played their final regular season game.