West Haven, Conn. (February 13) – Behind a career-high 32-point effort from senior Gabrielle Gibson (Amityville, N.Y./Copiague), the Assumption women's basketball team came away with a 78-69 victory over the University of New Haven on Wednesday night. Assumption is receiving votes in the USA Today Sports Division II National Poll for the ninth straight week.

Assumption jumped out to a 9-5 lead over the early minutes before the Chargers answered with a 12-0 run spanning just over two minutes to seize their biggest lead of the half at 17-9. Behind eight points from Gibson, the Hounds answered back with a 10-2 run of their own and tied the game at 19-19 with 5:31 left in the period. Neither team led by more than three until the final seconds as senior Sabrina Siciliano (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield-Warde) scored on a layup off an inbounds play at the buzzer to send the Hounds into the half leading 35-31. Gibson led all scorers with 19 points in the period on 7-for-12 shooting.

In the second half, the Hounds came out firing and quickly stretched the lead into double figures at 46-36 with 15:39 left. New Haven answered right back though with an 8-0 run, capped by a jumper from Briana Bradford, to get back within 46-44 with 12:06 on the clock. Gibson ended the run with a free throw as the Hounds maintained a 47-44 lead.

The Chargers again closed to within one at 51-50 before a 5-0 spurt, sparked by three points from senior Katy Howard (Medway, Mass./Medway), pushed the lead back to 56-50 with just under eight minutes left. The lead made it up to eight at 58-50 before a Charger hoop with 4:40 left ended a New Haven scoreless stretch of over four minutes. Assumption kept the offensive pressure up though and used another 10-2 run to stretch the lead up to 14 at 68-54 with just 2:32 left and put the game out of reach.

Gibson led the Hounds with a career-high 32-point effort, along with 16 points from Howard and 12 from Siciliano. Gibson also added 11 rebounds for the double-double. Bradford and Tran were in double figures for New Haven with 23 and 21 points each, respectively.

With the win, Assumption improves to 16-6 overall and 13-5 in the Northeast-10, while New Haven drops to 10-12 overall and 9-9 in league play.

Assumption is back in action on Saturday, February 16th as the Hounds host Adelphi University for a 3:30 p.m. start as part of the annual "Play4Kay" weekend that raises money for breast cancer research thru the Kay Yow Cancer Foundation.

For the latest on Assumption College Athletics, follow the Hounds via social media on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For more information, contact the Office of Athletic Communications at 508-767-7240.