Western New England Rallies Past Fitchburg State, 61-58

Maloney hits for 12 in Falcons non-conference setback

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (December 7, 2010) –  Senior Molly Maloney (Taunton, Mass./Taunton) totaled a team-high 12 points as Fitchburg State fell to Western New England College, 61-58 in non-conference action this evening.

Maloney paced Fitchburg State, connecting on 5 of her 13 shots for the night, while freshman guard Amy Fahey (Wilmington, Mass./Wilmington) tossed in ten points to go with six boards in a reserve role. Senior center Kristen Love (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) continued her dominance on the glass, grabbing a game-high ten rebounds.

Western New England received a solid offensive output from sophomore Elena Radzikowski (Medway, Mass./Medway), who came off the bench to score a game high 14 points. Senior forward Kelly McCormick (Manchester, Conn./Manchester) also had a strong offensive outing with 11 points and nine rebounds, while sparking the Golden Bear defense with three steals, including a last minute theft to give Western New England a 57-56 advantage with 59.1 seconds left in the game.

Western New England rallied from an 18-point second half deficit, using the strong second half play by McCormick, junior Katie Eckert (Lee, Mass./Lee) and sophomore Emily Savino (Ellington, Conn./Ellington). With a one point lead in hand and less than a minute remaining in the contest, Western New England cashed in on a pair of Savino free-throws, taking a 59-56 lead with 27.2 seconds remaining.

Fitchburg State made it a one-point game when sophomore forward Jill Moses (Dedham, Mass./Dedham) hit a jumper at the 17.8-second mark but sophomore guard Shelby Van Huysen (Killingworth, Conn./Haddam Killingworth) calmly drained a pair of charity shots to make it 61-58 match just one second later. The Falcons had a chance to tie the game, but a three-pointer by Maloney missed the mark and closed the contest.

Fitchburg State shot 50% from the field to take a 38-25 lead at halftime and the Falcons increased their lead to 45-27 advantage when senior guard Kim Duprey (Bernardston, Mass./Pioneer Valley) buried a three-pointer with 13:30 left in the contest. Western New England College, which struggled from the field (32.3%) all night, used a 19-2 run late in the game to key its comeback, while Fitchburg State hit only 26.9% of its field goal attempts in the second half.

Fitchburg State (5-3, 0-0 MASCAC) will be in action again on Saturday as it hosts Emerson College at 1 p.m. Western New England (6-1, 0-0 TCCC) will host Mount Ida College on Thursday at 7 p.m.

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Western New England 61, Fitchburg State 58