Box Score
QUINCY, Mass. - Eastern Nazarene and Gordon College met in a Commonwealth Coast Conference contest on Saturday afternoon. In the first game between the two teams on January 7th the Lions took home a 55-47 victory over the Fighting Scots. The rematch was no different, as the ENC defeated GC 57-44 behind 15 points from senior Samantha Leach and a 13-point, 14-rebound double-double from junior Alexis Malloy.
Gordon freshman Leanna Tallamy led all players with 24-points and 16 rebounds, recording her 12th double-double of the season. The first year also tallied four steals, two blocks and two assists for the Fighting Scots.
The Lions began the game strong, scoring seven unanswered points in the first 2:25 of the half. Freshman Aly Towle broke Gordon’s silence at the 16:06 mark, hitting a duo of free-throws to put her squad on the board at 2-7. Gordon would bring it to within three on four separate occasions, the last coming with 2:43 left in the period after a Tallamy jumper, but the Lions would hold their lead throughout, taking a seven-point (23-16)advantage into the locker room at the break.
Eastern Nazarene’s Leach would open the second half of action with a 3-pointer just 10 seconds in, marking her second of the game. She would go on to hit three more in the half for her squad. Gordon would cut the Lion’s lead to five at 18:49 and 12:21, but would get no closer, as the ENC hit 42.9 percent from the field in the second half, and 50 percent on 5-10 shooting from the 3-point line, to come away with the 13-point win.
Malloy added four assists, two blocks and a steal to her dub-dub to mark an impressive night. Leach hit a career-high five from downtown and recorded two assists for the Lions. Junior Shardae Brown had a strong second half, finishing the game with seven points and eight rebounds and classmate Ace Carradine dished out nine assists. Freshman Kori Sorensen came up with nine points and sophomore Dianna Bonds rounded out the team effort, scoring six and grabbing nine off of the glass.
Freshman Brooke Kratche came up with six rebounds and two assists for the Fighting Scots to go with her eight points. Senior Catey Marshall and Towle scored five and four, respectively, and collected four rebounds and two assists apiece. Towle also came up with three steals and two blocks in the game.
With the win, the Lions improve to 10-10 on the season and 7-6 in the CCC. Their 10 overall wins are the most that an Eastern Nazarene squad has won since 2004-2005, which was during the Ken Hardee era. He managed the feat in his fourth season as the head coach. Lion’s head coach Sacha Santimano has achieved the mark in her first season at the helm of the program. The Fighting Scots drop to 7-14 and in 2-12 conference play.
The Lions travel to Endicott on February 6th for a make-up game against the Gulls. Endicott is the only CCC school that ENC has yet to face. Gordon’s next game will also be against Endicott, in Wenham, Mass. on February 8th at 6:00p.m.
Release courtesy of ENC sports information.
