WENHAM, Mass.—The Gordon Women's Basketball team ran its early season win streak to two games with a 61-35 win over Wheelock College in the opener of the Gordon College Classic. Olivia Vetere (Mahopac, N.Y.) had a career-high 25 points to lead the Fighting Scots to their largest margin of victory since a 36-point win against Lesley last season.
The Wildcats came out shooting the lights of the gym in the first two minutes of the game. Michelle Woods (Wilmington, Mass.) had an easy look at the hoop on Wheelock's first possession and then back-to-back triples by Katie Alsip (Quincy, Mass.) and Jaime Grzych (Columbia, Conn.) gave the Wildcats a 8-0 advantage just two minutes in.
A quick Gordon timeout settled the Scots down despite the quick deficit and Vetere was able to hit her first of five shots from deep in the third minute of the game. A run of buckets by Sophie Linnell (Richmond, Va.) and Brooke Kratche (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) brought the Fighting Scots even at the 12:51 mark in the first half, at 10 points a side.
Gordon took its first lead of the game just one possession later on a jumper in the lane by Mariel Barner (Colorado Springs, Colo.). The two teams struggled to gain possession of any momentum over the next four minutes and Wheelock eventually retook a slight two-point lead with just eight minutes remaining in the first half. Vetere answered back on Gordon's next possession with her second triple of the game to give Gordon a 18-17 advantage.
Once again, Woods countered back with an easy layup to a one-point lead with six minutes to play. However, freshman Kristen Smith (Littleton, Mass.) put the Fighting Scots ahead for good with a nifty lay-in in the thick of the paint. A three-pointer by Vetere and a three-point play by Linnell pushed Gordon's lead to 26-19 with three minutes left. Barner would add two made free-throws and Gordon took advantage of a six-minute scoring drought for the Wildcats to end the half—the Fighting Scots led 28-19 at the break.
The Fighting Scots methodically built their lead to double-digits in the early stages of the second half. A triple by Grzych cut Gordon's advantage to seven with 15:22 on the clock, but that would be as close as the Wildcats would get for the remainder. Once again the Wildcats struggled to find the bucket down the stretch of the half, scoring their last point of the game with 5:22 remaining. Gordon broke open the game with a 9-0 run to the finish, handing Wheelock a 61-35 loss.
Alsip led the Wildcats with 13 points on the day, while Grzych finished with nine points, two assists and two steals. Alsip was also the leading rebounder for Wheelock with seven total boards. Wheelock finished the game going 9-for-18 from the line.
Vetere's stellar game gave the Scots a big cushion in the second half. The junior had 25 points and was 5-for-8 from behind the arch. Linnell finished a rebound short of a double-double for the first time in her young career, but still pitched in a line of 14 points and nine boards. Kratche had 13 points for Gordon despite a slow start to the game, while also snatching four steals.
Barner did the little things right for the Gordon ladies, finishing with a solid line of seven points, five steals and 10 assists. It was the first double-digit assist performance for a Gordon woman since Aly Towle did in the regular season finale of the 2011-2012 season.
Gordon outrebounded the Wildcats 39-28 for the game and forced 22 turnovers. The Fighting Scots improved to 2-1 on the season and will take on Norwich in the championship game tomorrow at 3 p.m. The Cadets came from behind to defeat New England College in the late game on Friday. Wheelock drops its first of the year and will take on NEC in the consolation game at 1 p.m. at the Bennett Center.
