Garden City, N.Y. (January 8) -- Led by a season-high 12 three-pointers, the Saint Anselm women's basketball team defeated Adelphi University by a 68-58 final in Northeast-10 Conference play at the Center for Recreation and Sport on Saturday afternoon.

Saint Anselm fell into an early 14-5 hole before back-to-back three-pointers from Curran Leighton (Dover, N.H.) and Vanessa D'Ambrosi (Brooklyn, N.Y.) pulled the Hawks back to within three. The Hawks continued to battle and with 4:37 left in the opening half, Saint Anselm tied the game at 24-24 on a triple from Epiphany Smith (Springdale, Ark.). Adelphi closed the half on an 11-5 run though to take a 35-29 lead into the break. The Hawks knocked down seven three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, led by 10 points from Leighton.

After the Panthers stretched the lead to 37-29 in the opening minute of the second half, the Hawks put together an 11-0 run and took their first lead of the game at 38-37 on a D'Ambrosi three-pointer. The Hawks made it a 40-37 lead before the Panthers got a layup from Samantha Breidenbach (Northport, N.Y.) to stop the Saint Anselm scoring run.

Saint Anselm pushed the lead out to six before the Panthers rallied to within 53-51 with 5:17 left on a layup from Ashley Caiafa (Massapequa, N.Y.). That was as close as Adelphi would get though as the Hawks ended the game on a 15-7 run to clinch the victory.

Smith led the Hawks with 22 points, along with 14 points and nine rebounds from Leighton and an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double by junior Megan Howard (St. Paul, Minn.). Caiafa led the Panthers with 20 points.

With the victory, Saint Anselm improves to 6-7 overall and 3-6 in the Northeast-10, while Adelphi drops to 6-7 overall and 3-6 in the league.

Saint Anselm is back in action on Tuesday, January 11th as the Hawks host Pace University for a 5:30 p.m. start at Stoutenburgh Gym. The game is available live online at www.SaintAnselmHawks.tv.