Jessica Hurd made several clutch baskets late in Saturday's
win
RINDGE, N.H. (January 25, 2014) – Junior forward
Jessica Hurd (Kegworth, England) scored a
team-high 17 points, and knocked down several critical baskets
late, to help the Franklin Pierce University women's
basketball team pull away late for an important 76-68 win over
Southern Connecticut State on Saturday afternoon at The Fieldhouse
in Rindge.
The Ravens won their second
straight and sixth in the last seven to improve to 10-7 overall and
7-5 in the Northeast-10, while the Owls dipped to 9-9 and 5-7 in
league play.
Hurd scored six crucial points late
in the game after the Ravens had seen their 15-point lead evaporate
into just a two-point advantage (63-61) with 4:25 remaining in the
game.
She answered Southern
Connecticut's 17-4 run with a jumper in the low post, and
after a three from Brooke Coderre (Woonsocket,
R.I.) and a layup from Kara Charette (Fairhaven,
Mass.), Hurd tossed in a layup of her own, and the Ravens
found themselves up 72-63 with 1:48 to go.
Hurd hit two more free throws a
minute later to put Franklin Pierce back up by double-digits at
74-63, as they cruised in for the win from there.
She was 6-of-14 from the floor, but
5-for-6 from the free throw line, while also totaling five
rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Coderre and Dyamond Gardner
(Cambridge, Mass.) followed with 16 and 15 points,
respectively, while Charette added 11.
Southern Connecticut mounted its
furious rally late after Gardner bombed in a triple to stake the
Ravens to what seemed to be a comfortable 59-44 lead with 10:30
remaining.
Keshia Primo, who poured in a
game-high 25 points for the Owls, kick-started the run with a
layup, and Taylor McLaughlin added to it with seven points (had 11
for the game). Jackie Beathea, who had 14 off the bench, capped the
surge with a layup.
Franklin Pierce shot 46 percent
from the floor, and 42 percent from three-point range, while SCSU
struggled at 36 and 22 percent.
The one area where Southern
Connecticut dominated was on the boards, as it held a 52-37
edge.
The Owls got to work on the glass
early and built an 8-3 lead, but the Ravens fought back and the
game went back and forth the remainder of the first half with the
lead changing hands five times over a six-minute span.
The Ravens, though, finally started
taking control late in the stanza, and scored the final nine points
to go from being down one to up eight (32-24) at halftime. Gardner
highlighted the rally with six of the nine points on a three,
layup, and free throw, while Coderre added to it with a three ball
of her own.
Franklin Pierce continued to push
the pace in the early stages of the second half, and three more
points from Hurd over a 40-second span staked the Ravens to a 37-26
lead. The Ravens continued to add to their advantage before
SCSU's late rally made things interesting.
Senior guard Brittany
Martelle (Brookfield, Conn.) added nine points in the win,
and is now just three points shy of 1,000 for her career. She will
look to accomplish the career feat on Wednesday night, when the
Ravens play host to Adelphi at 5:30 p.m. in The Fieldhouse in
Rindge. Martelle would become just the 22nd player in
program history to reach the prestigious scoring plateau.
For more information on Franklin
Pierce women's basketball, please visit the team's page
at http://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 online store
at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)
