Springfield, Mass. (November 14) -- Led by a balanced scoring attack and a defense that forced 24 turnovers, the Assumption College women's basketball team opened the 2012-2013 season with a 65-47 victory over American International on Wednesday evening. With the win, the Hounds have now won five straight regular-season openers.

The two teams traded the lead over the first six minutes before a 10-2 Assumption run, capped by a layup from senior Courtney Donovan (Sagamore Beach, Mass./Bourne), to extend the lead out to 18-11 with 10:26 left in the half. The Yellow Jackets closed the lead down to one at 24-23 before the Hounds closed the period on a 7-0 run to take the 31-23 lead into the halftime break.

The Hounds extended the lead into double digits for the first time in the opening minutes of the second half at 36-25 following a fast break layup from senior Katy Howard (Medway, Mass./Medway). Assumption led by double digits the rest of the way and by as many 24 points as the Hounds came away with the victory.

Howard led the Hounds with 17 points, along with 14 points from Gibson.

With the win, Assumption opens up at 1-0 overall and in league play, while the Yellow Jackets suffer their first loss of the season to drop to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in the Northeast-10.

Assumption is back in action on Friday, November 16th as the Hounds take on Caldwell College in a 5:30 p.m. start at the Stonehill Tip-Off Classic.

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