MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College women's basketball team scored 12 consecutive points late in the fourth quarter, capturing a 63-61 victory over visiting Southern Connecticut State University in the process.
Saint Anselm improves to 8-10 overall on the season and to 4-8 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents. Southern Connecticut State, who defeated the Hawks last season by a 105-69 margin, falls to 10-7 and to 5-6 versus the league.
Junior Gabby Turco (Wildwood, N.J.) went 11-for-11 from the free throw line in the victory, becoming one of just two student-athletes (Peyton Steinman '22) since at least the 2001-02 season to accomplish that. She is also the lone East Region student-athlete this season with a perfect single-game percentage with at least 11 attempts and one of just 15 nationally to make that claim.
Turco finished with 20 points in the winning effort and sophomore Melanie Hoyt (Stamford, N.Y.) posted 11 points, notching seven rebounds. Senior Liv Robles (Wallingford, Conn.) led student-athletes from both teams with 11 caroms, matching a career-high. As a team, Saint Anselm held the 39-to-26 edge in rebounding and shot just shy of 45% from the floor.
Down by a 59-51 margin with 4:38 to go in regulation time, the Hawks went on a 12-0 run that locked down the victory. Despite making just two of its five field goal attempts, Saint Anselm went 7-for-8 from the line (Turco was a perfect 6-for-6 in that span) and kept SCSU without a successful field goal.
The Hawks built up a game-high lead of seven points late in the first quarter, outscoring the Owls by a 16-12 margin through the opening 10 minutes. Junior Alexa Quirolo (New Rochelle, N.Y.) had five points for the Hawks off the bench in just four minutes of game play.
Despite a late 10-4 scoring run for Southern Connecticut State, a late floater from freshman Gina Gaccione (Rutherford, N.J.) with 1:31 to go tied the game at 29 heading into the locker room. The teams were fairly even statistically, with the one exception coming via points off turnovers – SCSU scored 10 points off eight Hawks miscues.
Southern Connecticut State scored a game-high 21 points in the third quarter, but Saint Anselm only trailed by five heading into the fourth quarter. Prior to the 12-point run by the Hawks, the Owls scored 16 of the game's 26 points spanning the third and fourth stanzas.
The Owls were not far behind Saint Anselm in field goal percentage (44.4%-to-42.1%) and both teams knocked down four triples, but the Hawks went to the line 26 times and shot 73.1% while SCSU converted at just a 69.2% clip (9-for-13).
Four of the team's next six games are on the road, starting with a 5:30 p.m. contest at Bentley this Wednesday, Jan. 25.
