North Andover, Mass. (January 28) -- Junior Gabrielle Gibson (Amityville, N.Y./Copiague) scored on a layup with less than a second left to lift No. 21 Assumption to a 69-68 road win over Merrimack at the Volpe Center on Saturday afternoon. Assumption is ranked No. 21 in this week's USA Today/ESPN Division II Coaches Poll and has been ranked in every regular-season poll this season.

The two teams traded the lead back and forth over the opening minutes before the Hounds opened up a 15-10 lead after a layup from junior Sabrina Siciliano (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield-Warde). Sustaining the offensive surge, Assumption opened up a 27-14 lead with 7:16 after a fastbreak layup off a steal by Gibson. Merrimack answered the Assumption run with an 8-0 run of its own over the next 2:38 to cut the lead down to 27-22 with 4:38 left in the opening half.

A pair of Siciliano layups ended the run and extended the Assumption lead back to nine at 31-22 before the Hounds took the 33-27 edge into the halftime break. Siciliano led the Hounds with 10 points in the half, along with six rebounds. Senior All-American candidate Kelly Meredith (Franklin, Mass./Franklin) notched six points in the period, including a three-pointer at the 12:46 mark that moved her into fourth place on the school's all-time scoring list.

Assumption led by at least nine points over the first 12 minutes of the second half before the Warriors cut the lead down to 56-50 with 7:15 left on a three from the corner by Gennifer Roy. Merrimack cut into the lead even further and with 5:46 remaining, the Hounds led by a 58-54 margin. Assumption answered with a pair of free throws by Marissa Velez (Barre, Vt./Spaulding) and called a timeout with 5:27 left, leading 60-54.

Merrimack came out of the timeout on a 9-2 run though and on a putback from Valerie Avebe, the Warriors took a 63-62 lead with 2:45 remaining. The two teams traded the lead back and forth over the next 1:40 before Meredith gave Assumption a 67-66 lead with 22.5 seconds left as she knocked down 1-of-2 at the free throw line. On the ensuing possession, Kelly Schatzlein scored on a layup with 8.7 seconds left to give the Warriors the lead again at 68-67.

The Hounds inbounded the ball and quickly got the ball into the hands of Gibson, who drove the lane and scored on an off-balance layup with less than one second left to give the visitors the comeback win.

Gibson finished the game with 14 points, while Siciliano posted a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double. Meredith finished the game with 11 points to jump into fourth place on the Assumption all-time career scoring list as she now has 1,464 points during her four-year career. Up next for Meredith is Meghan Sullivan '03 with 1,468 points.

Merrimack was led by a 25-point effort from Schatzlein, along with 18 from Roy and a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double from Avebe.

With the win, the Hounds improve to 14-5 overall and 11-4 in Northeast-10 play, while the Warriors now fall to 3-16 overall and 2-13 in the league.

Assumption is back in action on Tuesday, January 31st as the Hounds travel to Southern Connecticut for a 5:30 p.m. start in New Haven, Conn.