Syracuse, N.Y. – Lauren Hebert scored a career-high 21 points to lead the University of New Haven to an 81-63 victory over the Le Moyne College women's basketball team in the Northeast-10 Conference opener for both teams on Wednesday evening at Ted Grant Court.

Senior guard Vandell Andrade (Cranston, R.I./St. Mary's-Bay View/Rhode Island College) led the Dolphins in the setback with 18 points, including 13 in the second half, in 22 minutes before fouling out, while adding seven rebounds and two assists. Freshman guard Melanie Quijano (San Diego, Calif./Horizon Christian) came off the bench to record 11 points, three assists and two rebounds in 18 minutes before fouling out. Sophomore forward Joanna Dobrovosky (Skaneateles, N.Y./Skaneateles) scored a career-best 11 points over 17 foul-plagued minutes. Senior forward Maggie Brown (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland) flirted with a triple-double with six points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists.

Hebert netted 18 of 21 points in the second half, with 11 of those points coming in the fourth period, while she pulled down seven rebounds and dished out a pair of assists. Quana Smith finished the contest with 16 points, including 10 in the second half, five assists and four rebounds, while Briana Bradford tallied 15 points and four assists.

The Chargers opened the game by scoring the first 10 points. India Dotson scored the first four and then Smith and Alexandria Kerr nailed three-pointers, which forced a Le Moyne timeout with 6:45 left in the opening period.

After New Haven pushed its lead to 18-5 with 3:31 left, the Dolphins rattled off 12 of the period's last 13 points to get within one. Quijano buried a pair of three-pointers in the stretch, while three other Dolphins each scored two points.

New Haven tallied nine of the first 11 points of the second period to push their lead back to nine with 5:52 left in the half. Bradford accounted for four of the nine points.

The Dolphins scored 12 of the next 14 points to take their first lead of the game. Dobrovosky, Andrade and Brown each had baskets around a three-pointer by Quijano, while senior guard Lauren Salzbrenner (Sheboygan, Wisc./Sheboygan North) drilled a three-pointer with 2:14 left for the lead.

After New Haven regained the lead with a lay-up, Salzbrenner gave the Dolphins a 34-32 lead at halftime with another three-pointer.

Le Moyne pushed its lead to four on three occasions over the first 4:08 of the third period, but New Haven scored 11 of the next 13 points to regain control of the game. Hebert netted the first seven points of the run, while Katia Oge and Smith followed with lay-ups.

Dobrovosky made a jumper with 29 seconds left in the period to get the Dolphins with 49-46 at the end of 30 minutes.

After Bradford opened the fourth period's scoring with two free throws, the Dolphins scored seven straight points to regain the lead. Dobrovosky and Andrade made jumpers before freshman guard Madison Purcell (Clifton Park, N.Y./Catholic Central) gave her team the lead with a three-pointer with 8:06 left.

Following back-and-forth play over the next three and one-half minutes, which resulted in a 62-61 Le Moyne lead, the Chargers ran off 12 straight points and 20 of the game's last 21 points to run away with the game. Hebert made three free throws with 4:31 left to give the Chargers the lead, while Kerr, Hebert and Oge followed with baskets before Smith drained a three-pointer.

After Dobrovosky ended Le Moyne's scoring drought of 3:16 with a free throw, New Haven made eight of 10 foul shots over the last 1:16 to put the game away.
 
Le Moyne (1-2, 0-1 NE-10), which dropped its Northeast-10 opener for the eighth straight year, is back in action on Saturday at Pace University at 1:30 p.m.