COLCHESTER, Vt. – Junior Curran Leighton (Dover, N.H.) scored 17 points to lead the Saint Anselm College women's basketball team to a 62-41 victory against Queens (N.Y.) College at the DoubleTree Tip-Off Classic on Sunday afternoon at Saint Michael's College's Ross Sports Center.
The Hawks improve to a perfect 5-0 for the first time since the 1996-97 season when the team began the year 6-0. The Knights fall to 0-5.
Leighton came two points shy of matching her career high on 7 of 11 shooting, including 3 of 5 from behind the arc. Leighton also recorded seven rebounds and two steals. Senior Epiphany Smith (Springdale, Ark.) was the other Hawk in double figures with 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting, including 2 of 4 from deep.
The Hawks trailed 12-10 midway through the opening half when a layup by senior Megan Howard (St. Paul, Minn.) sparked an 18-0 run that gave the team a commanding 28-12 lead with 3:39 to play. Smith and Leighton followed Howard's layup with a pair of 3-pointers that ran the lead to 18-12 just one minute later. A three-point play by sophomore Briana Jones (White Plains, N.Y.), followed by another Smith trey and a Howard layup, pushed the lead to 26-12 before sophomore Tori Lehr (Cohasset, Mass.) capped the run with a basket.
Saint Anselm went into the locker room with a 33-20 lead.
Layups on consecutive possessions by Leighton and Smith widened the advantage to 17 just 2:12 into the second half. Nearly two minutes later, the Hawks went on a 9-2 run that was finished off with a Leighton 3-pointer and layup on back-to-back possessions to open the gap to 46-24 with 13:28 remaining.
The lead was 21 at the 7:08 mark when Queens ran off a 7-0 run that closed it to 51-37 with 4:48 on the clock. The Hawks answered, however, by scoring 11 of the game's final 15 points, including five from Leighton, to close it out.
Howard posted eight points and six rebounds, while Jones filled the box score with five points, three rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal. Lehr recorded six points and five rebounds off the bench.
The Hawks outshot the Knights, 52.1 percent (25-48) to 32.5 percent (13-40), and held advantages on the glass (31-21), in the paint (38-14) and in bench scoring (18-4).
Nicole Caggiano led the Knights with 17 points.
The Hawks return to action Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 5:30 p.m. when they travel across town to face Southern New Hampshire University. The next home game for the Hawks is Sunday, Nov. 27 at 1:30 p.m. when they play host to Bentley University at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
