Rindge, N.H. (March 4) -- No. 3 seed Assumption was unable to overcome a career-high 42-point outburst from Franklin Pierce's Jewel White as the Greyhounds dropped a 90-75 final to the No. 2 seeded Ravens on Friday night in the Northeast-10 Tournament Semifinals at the FPU Fieldhouse. The Ravens advance to the championship game and will face top-seeded Bentley on Sunday. Assumption falls to 21-7 overall on the season with the defeat.
Six quick points by Assumption's Katy Howard (Medway, Mass./Medway) helped the Greyhounds to an early 9-8 lead with 15:32 left in the opening half. After a three-pointer from Kate McDonald put the Ravens back on top two minutes later, White scored the next 14 points for the hosts to push the lead to six at 25-19 with 7:51 remaining. The lead eventually went into double digits on two occasions before a layup from junior standout Kelly Meredith (Franklin, Mass./Franklin) made it a 38-30 game heading into the halftime break. Sophomore Sabrina Siciliano (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield-Warde) led the Greyhounds with nine points in the period, along with eight from Howard. White led all scorers with 20 points in the first half for the Ravens.
In the second half, White scored 18 straight points for the Ravens as Franklin Pierce led by as many as 20 points at 71-51 with six minutes left. The Greyhounds kept the pressure up and closed the gap back down to 10 points at 76-66 with 2:36 remaining after the second of two straight three-pointers from Howard. Assumption was unable to get any closer though as the Ravens came away with the 15-point victory.
The Ravens outscored the Greyhounds by a 35-15 margin at the line as FPU knocked down 35-of-36 attempts from the charity stripe.
Howard led the Greyhounds with a 25-point showing, along with 15 points from Gabrielle Gibson (Amityville, N.Y./Copiague), 13 points from Siciliano and 10 from senior Molly Griffiths (Walpole, Mass./Ursuline). White led all scorers with her tournament-record 42 points, while four Ravens overall finished in double figures.
The Greyhounds now await the announcement of the 2011 NCAA Tournament Field, which will be announced on Sunday night at 9:30 p.m. at www.ncaa.com. The Greyhounds were ranked fourth in the latest NCAA East Region rankings, with the top eight teams advancing to the regional.
