Sophmore Renee Nicholas (Sebago) recorded a double-double that included a single-game school record 13 steals to help lead the Huskies to a 55-31 win over conference foe UMass Boston at Hill Gymnasium last Tuesday.
Nicholas also finished the game with 10 points, eight rebounds, and five assists making her just two rebounds shy of recording her first career triple-double. Nicholas broke the previous single game steals record, which was set 28 years ago by former USM All-American Maureen Burchill, who had 11 steals against Dominican College in 1982.
USM junior guard Kaylie DeMillo (Jay) chipped in 12 points in the contest and freshman sensation Curran Leighton (Dover, NH) also added 12 points and 10 rebounds to garner her team-leading seventh double-double of the season.
A game like this allows Coach Gary Fifield to play other players and give his starters some rest as the end of the regular season nears.
“Today’s game was a great opportunity for our starters to not play as many minutes, and helped us send some other players in to get quality minutes,” Fifeild said.
USM put up a strong defensive front in the first half as they shut down the Beacon’s offensive attack, holding them to only 3-for-20 shooting from the field as they coasted to a 26-10 advantage at the break.
The Huskies started off the second half as they ended in the first, as their defense proved to be a catalyst once again. USM held UMass scoreless for nearly the first 10 minutes of the second half, while they went on a 17-0 run making the score 43-10 at the half’s midpoint.
The Beacons finally got on the scoreboard when UMass freshman guard Kate Levy netted two free throws. From that point UMass went on a 12-0 run, but USM recovered with six unanswered points and didn’t look back.
The Huskies, who are tied for third with Keene State in the Little East Conference standings, have six games left with five of them coming against conference opponents. They need to focus and keep playing their game to stroll into the conference tournament maintaining a high seed.
“We could go in anywhere from second to sixth in the tournament,” Fifield said. “We have a lot of basketball left, and it’s going to be a battle till the end. We just need to keep playing aggressive and we’ll be right in the hunt.”
The Beacons were led by sophomore forward Molly Piette who shot 3-for-5 from the field, tallying eight points coming off the bench.