MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College women's basketball team completed the season sweep of Pace University on Wednesday, getting past the Setters by a 74-64 score in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.
Saint Anselm improves to 10-11 overall on the season and to 6-9 versus the Northeast-10 Conference. Pace, the reigning NCAA Division II East Region champions, drop to 8-14 overall having lost 10 of their first 15 games against the league.
As a team, the Hawks were 18-for-19 (94.7%) from the charity stripe, ranking in the top-10 in single-game history. Junior Gabby Turco (Wildwood, N.J.) led the way with a perfect five-for-five performance at the line, finishing with a game-high 21 points while adding eight rebounds.
Sophomore Melanie Hoyt (Stamford, N.Y.) made seven of her 11 shots from the floor, reaching 19 points, and senior Liv Robles (Wallingford, Conn.) had a well-rounded stat line with 10 points, seven rebounds, five assists, one steal and one blocked shot. Freshman Gina Gaccione (Rutherford, N.J.) had eight points and two blocks off the bench.
The Hawks shot over 50% from the floor for the fourth time this season, making 26-of-48 field goals in the victory. Both teams hauled in 27 rebounds but the Hawks had 15 of the game's 24 asssits and led in paint points by a 20-to-6 margin in the game's first 20 minutes.
Saint Anselm opened up an 18-10 lead in the game's first eight-plus minutes with six Hawks posting points in that span. The advantage grew to 38-21 with 2:26 left in the first half, thanks to a quick 9-3 scoring spurt that eventually led to a 40-26 lead at the break.
The hosts put the game away in the third quarter, scoring 16 of the game's 25 points at one juncture, to create a game-high bulge of 19 points. Pace scored a game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, limiting Saint Anselm to just 16 points, but two 20-point quarters in the first half secured the win for the Hawks.
The Hawks have the weekend off from game play, returning to action Tuesday, Feb. 7 against American International at 5:30 p.m.
