ORANGEBURG, N.Y. – Heading into the fourth quarter tied at 45, the Saint Anselm College women's basketball team outscored Caldwell University by a 29-14 margin to secure a 74-59 victory on Saturday in a game played at Dominican (N.Y.) College.
Saint Anselm, who will host Southern New Hampshire on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., improves to 3-2 on the year following the non-conference tilt. Caldwell dips to 3-2 overall on the year.
Senior Peyton Steinman (Pittsfield, Mass.) scored 24 points with 11 rebounds and four assists. Sophomore Gabby Turco (Wildwood, N.J.) posted 20 points with junior McKenzy Ouellette (West Newfield, Maine) notching 11 points in the game. Both Turco and Ouellette reached career-highs in point scoring.
Freshman Melanie Hoyt (Stamford, N.Y.) broke out for 11 rebounds, nine points and three steals. Across her first four games at the collegiate level, she is 9-for-14 from the floor (64.3%) and has picked up 16 rebounds in those games.
With the score tied entering the fourth quarter, the Hawks opened up play on a 13-2 scoring run that was keyed by a five-for-five shooting percentage from the floor. In that stretch, Turco led the way with six points and was joined on the scoresheet by four points from Hoyt and three from Steinman.
Caldwell cut the Hawks lead to 60-55 with 5:03 to go, but Saint Anselm ended the game on a 14-4 scoring run to lock down the win. Turco had eight points in that span, finishing with 16 points in the game's final 10 minutes alone. Steinman also chipped in with nine points and five rebounds in the final 10 minutes as her team was a combined 10-for-16 (62.5%) in crunch time.
Down by a two-point margin just 4:50 into the game, Saint Anselm concluded the first quarter by scoring seven of the final eight points of the stanza to create a 16-12 lead. The Hawks maintained their lead through halftime and at one point scored 19 of the game's 25 points to take a lead of 31-18 with 2:30 to go in the first half.
Saint Anselm led by a 35-28 score at half, but Caldwell was in the midst of a scoring spurt that saw the Cougars score 18 of the game's 21 points that pushed them ahead, 38-35, with 7:22 left in the third quarter. Caldwell led by a game-high seven points, 44-37, with 3:18 left in the third.
The Hawks set up the strong fourth quarter with eight of the final nine points in the third quarter, using that momentum to eventually lock down the win. Junior Macy Spinks (Luton, England) hit a huge three-point basket with 12:53 left in the game, starting a run that saw her team score 21 of the game's next 24 points on the way to the win.
Casey O'Shaughnessy had 19 points to lead Caldwell. Rebecca Morrison scored 14 points with Halle Brown pulled down six rebounds.
