Tiffany Johnson adds 12 points, 6 steals and 5 rebounds in the win

MANCHESTER, N.H. (February 13, 2013) -- The Franklin Pierce University women's basketball team withstood a second half run from Southern New Hampshire and responded with a strong surge to pull away for a 73-62 win on Wednesday night at the SNHU Fieldhouse in Manchester. The Ravens improved to 15-7 overall and 12-6 in the Northeast-10, while the Penmen dipped to 11-11 and 8-10 in league play.

Junior guard Brittany Martelle (Brookfield, Conn.) came off the bench to toss in a game-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field (3-of-5 from 3-point range), while senior guard Tiffany Johnson (St. Albans, Vt.) added 12 points, six steals and five rebounds.

It was Martelle and Johnson who rallied the Ravens in the second half and stemmed the tide of Southern New Hampshire's 13-1 run, which had given the Penmen a 47-46 lead with 11:52 remaining, after they had trailed by 11 points just minutes earlier.

After Chelsea Dunham's basket staked SNHU to the one-point advantage, Martelle sparked an ensuing 12-0 surge by drilling a trey from near the top of the arc to put the Ravens back on top. Johnson followed with a three of her own on Franklin Pierce's next possession and Martelle hit a driving layup moments later. Johnson capped the surge with back-to-back layups and the Ravens were quickly back up by 11 at 58-47 with 8:45 to go.

The Ravens would not slow down from there and a pair of free throws from senior guard Brooke Long (Richmond, Va.) and freshman forward Kara Charette (Fairhaven, Mass.) over the next few minutes pushed the Ravens lead out to 14 at 66-52. Long and Charette each netted eight points in a reserve role as Franklin Pierce's bench outscored SNHU's subs by a 41-12 count.

The Ravens led by as many as 16 on two separate occasions late in the contest before cruising in for the 11-point victory. 

Sloane Sorrell paced Southern New Hampshire with 19 points before leaving midway through the second half with an injury. Michelle DeRoma, who followed with 16 points, scored four of those during SNHU's second half run as it took the lead momentarily.

Each of the nine Ravens that played in the game scored, despite the team shooting just 39 percent from the floor. Despite the sluggish shooting overall, Franklin Pierce did shoot well from behind the arc with a 48 percent clip (10-of-21).

Frankin Pierce also did a solid job defensively by forcing the Penmen into 22 turnovers and scoring 25 points off of those. The Ravens held SNHU to just 33 percent shooting from beyond the arc, which did not help the Penmen mount a comeback after the Ravens had retaken a double-digit lead late in the second half.

The Ravens got out of the gates strong by scoring 14 of the first 19 points a little more than six minutes into the opening half. Martelle highlighted the opening surge with five points, while senior forward Amanda Saab (Windham, N.H.) aided it with four.

Franklin Pierce opened up a 14-point advantage at 25-11 four minutes later following three-pointers from Martelle and classmate Brooke Coderre (Woonsocket, R.I.), and eventually took a 34-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.

It marked the fourth time overall and the second time in the last four contests that Martelle has come off the bench to score at least 20 points. She has scored double-figures off the bench in 11 contests this season.

Franklin Pierce returns to action Saturday when the Ravens play host to Saint Anselm at 1:30 p.m. in The Fieldhouse in Rindge.

For more information on Franklin Pierce women's basketball, please visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce women's basketball apparel can do so on the athletic department's new online store at athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)