Gordon College Women's Basketball rounded out the first half of Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play by traveling to Newport, Rhode Island this evening to face Salve Regina University, whose persistent offensive effort proved enough to hand the Fighting Scots a narrow 53-51 loss.

The Fighting Scots saw production from Meghan Foley who led all scorers with 19 points, Sarah Gibbs who fought her way to a double-double tallying 15 rebounds and 10 points, and Abby Vampatella who recorded a near double-double with nine rebounds and seven points.
 
For the home team, Kerri Beland (Sr./Attleboro, Mass.) netted a team-high 16 points, teammate Tara Burke (Sr./Londonderry, N.H.) had a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards, Mary Rorke (So./Norton, Mass.) put up a solid 10 points, and Lauryn Becker (Sr./Hanover, Mass.) was 4-8 from the field with eight points.
 
Both teams are on the road on Saturday, January 19 for their next contests as the Scots travel to Western New England and the Seahawks visit Wentworth for 1 p.m. tipoffs.
 
How It Happened

• It was a very quiet first five minutes as the scoreboard read just 5-4 in favor of the Scots after a Foley three-pointer. Jess Wall knocked in the last two buckets for the Scots to give Gordon an 11-8 lead going into the second frame.
• The senior leadership of Burke and Becker guided the Seahawks to a 15-14 lead with 6:28 left, but a Foley jumper gave Gordon a slim 18-17 advantage just minutes later. Beland went on to sink a jumper to regain the edge for the home team en route to an eventual 22-21 lead in favor of the Seahawks.
• The third quarter saw the most offensive production as both teams put up 16 points each. The Seahawks' Torie Scorpio (Jr./Cranston, R.I.) put in a layup to give her squad a comfortable nine-point lead before Gordon scored seven unanswered points, two of which were from Foley driving hard to the hoop and successfully completing an "and one" with two minutes to play. Becker answered on the other end with a quick jumper to push their lead to three, but Sarah Gibbs drained two free throws to close the gap to one going into the final quarter.
• Just over three minutes into the fourth, Beland hit a layup to increase Salve's lead to 10, but a team effort from the Scots saw five different scorers in the final six and a half minutes cut the deficit to three points with 39 ticks left on the clock. 
• After two missed Scorpio free throws with 10 seconds left, the Scots shuffled the ball to Foley to attempt a three but Beland came up big for her team blocking the shot. The ball found Scorpio again who was quickly fouled and found redemption at the charity stripe, hitting both free throws to make it a two-possession game. Despite the insurmountable deficit, Gordon never relented as Vampatella hit a three-pointer as time expired to put the Scots over the 50-point threshold.

 
Beyond The Box Score

• This was just the third time all season that Salve scored under 10 points in the first quarter. With tonight's win they are now 2-1 in those games.
• Meghan Foley has led all scorers in her last seven games.
• Sarah Gibbs has turned into a dominant rebounder, notching her ninth double-digit rebound performance on the season.