Hickey's 23 points, late three-pointer send Lyons past WPI, 58-53

January 11, 2007

WORCESTER, MA- Sophomore Krystin Hickey (Manchester, NH/New Hampton School) tallied 23 points, including a three-pointer with 2:29 remaining that gave the Wheaton College women's basketball team the lead for good during a 58-53 victory at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Harrington Auditorium in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action on Thursday. The Lyons are now 8-5 overall, including 3-0 in league play for the first time since 1998-99, while the Engineers fell to 8-5 and 1-1.

Wheaton led by as many as three points in the opening minutes of the game, and Hickey provided six of the Lyons' first 10 points over the first 6:22. After sophomore Jennie Pleat's (Nashua, NH/Nashua South) jumper gave the visitors a 12-11 edge at 12:33, the Engineers rattled off a 12-3 run to forge a 23-15 edge. Despite holding a 28-19 lead with 3:24 left in the half, WPI took a narrow 30-28 advantage into halftime after Lyon senior Kim McCormack (Milton, MA/Milton) sparked a 9-2 run by canning just her sixth career three-pointer late in the period.

McCormack's jumper 1:11 into the second stanza knotted the game at 30, and the teams drew deadlocks three more times during the first nine minutes of the period. Sophomore Bri Smith (Westford, MA/Westford Academy) drained a three to give the Lyons a 43-38 lead, and Hickey kept the Lyons up by five with a lay-up at 9:20 before WPI rallied. Three different Engineers scored during a 9-0 run that took the clock to 6:48, and the hosts maintained a four-point cushion until the waning minutes of regulation.

With her team down by a 53-49 count, Hickey knocked down a pair of free throws at 2:59 before canning her clutch three-pointer from the top of the key thirty seconds later to give the Lyons a 54-53 edge. Wheaton locked down defensively down the stretch, holding the Engineers scoreless and to 0-of-4 shooting over the final 3:25 while forcing three turnovers. Freshman Jenny Champney (Bedford, MA/Bedford) hit a pair of free throws to extend the Lyon lead to 56-53 with 36 seconds left, and junior Becky Aitchison (Norwalk, CT/Trinity Catholic) hit two more with five seconds showing.

Wheaton's late stand capped a three-game stretch that included clamp-down defense toward the end of each contest. In the Lyons' previous game on Tuesday, the Blue and White held Wellesley College to two buckets over the final 5:35, and Wheaton yielded no points over the last 5:25 against Clark University on Saturday.

Hickey proved to be the Lyons' lone double-digit scorer, as she recorded her eighth career 20-point game on the strength of 10-of-13 shooting. She fell one point short of matching her career high. McCormack tallied a game-high four assists and a team-high-tying seven rebounds, while Champney finished with seven boards and two blocks. The Lyons hit 22-of-48 shots while sinking 11-of-13 free throw attempts.

For WPI, senior Meghan Pajonas (Bristol, CT/Saint Paul Catholic) tallied 19 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while freshman Kaileen Selen (Worcester, MA/Saint Peter-Marian) added nine points and two three-pointers off the bench. The Engineers were 18-of-42 from inside the arc, but only 3-of-15 from beyond.

The Lyons head into a first-place showdown at Mount Holyoke College on Saturday, with tip-off in South Hadley scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Each team stands tied with Babson College for first place in the NEWMAC through three games.

This page is maintained by Scott Dietz. Last updated on 1/31/07.
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