MILTON, Mass. — For the fourth straight year, the Southern Vermont College women's basketball team was matched up against the hosting Colonels in the opening round of the Curry College Tip-off Tournament as the Mountaineers fell 86-62 Saturday afternoon in the non-conference tilt.
Curry (2-2) shot a stellar 50.8 percent (30-59) from the floor while SVC (1-1) finished with a 32.3 field goal percentage (19-59). The Colonels grabbed an early 11-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back, leading 40-16 at halftime. Southern Vermont outscored the hosts by a 28-22 margin in the third quarter to close the gap, but Curry was able to keep the Mountaineers at bay and finish off the victory to move into Sunday's championship game.
SVC will take on Wellesley College at 1 p.m. on Sunday in the consolation contest, the Blue having lost to Trinity College by a 53-30 margin earlier Saturday afternoon.
Southern Vermont was led by senior captain Amber Flagg (Windsor, Conn.) who had a quiet first half, only to open up for 14 points in the second to register a game-high 17; she added five rebounds and six assists while also becoming SVC's all-time steals leader with six on the day (193 career). Flagg's 17 points put her up to 1,403 for her career, making her just the sixth Southern Vermont player from both the men's and women's programs to surpass the 1,400 mark. She is now just 89 points shy of tying the women's all-time program mark of 1,492 (Joa Claircius).
Classmate Shaniquewa Barnes (Landover, Md.) added 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, and fellow senior Turquoia Johnson (Rockville, Md.) chipped in 12 points a game-best 13 boards for her fist double-double of the year.
The Mountaineers edged Curry on the glass by a 41-40 tally, but the Colonels utilized its 22 steals to outscore SVC 39-20 in points off turnovers.
Curry notched the first six points of the day and never surrendered that lead the rest of the way. Southern Vermont scored the final four points of the quarter, Johnson and Flagg each dropping a pair of free throws to make it a 21-9 affair at the first break. The Colonels continued to pad their cushion in the second period, scoring the final six points before halftime to take a 40-16 upper hand into the locker room.
SVC came out of the intermission with some solid shooting, hitting nine consecutive shots through the first five minutes of the third quarter to keep the game in reach. Flagg knocked down a three-ball in that stretch before junior captain Amber Dow (Vergennes, Vt.) grabbed a defensive board on the other end, worked back down the floor and turned a Flagg pass into another trey to make it a 48-30 Curry advantage. Those two long balls started a 15-2 Mountaineer run, four SVC players scoring in that spurt to help close the gap to 11 (50-39). The Colonels were able to gain some separation with help from the five-foul double bonus, hitting all six of their freebies in the final 38 seconds of the quarter to take a 62-44 lead to the fourth.
The final stanza saw Curry keep its distance, answering each time Southern Vermont scored to remain ahead comfortably. SVC took to an 8-2 run late in the game, but it would not be enough as the Colonel's separation was too much to overcome for the Mountaineers to avoid taking their first loss of the year.