West Haven, Conn. – Briana Bradford and Lauren Hebert combined for 50 points to lead the University of New Haven to a 75-70 win over the Le Moyne College women's basketball team in the Northeast-10 Conference regular-season finale for both teams on Tuesday night at Charger Gymnasium.
With the result, New Haven, Le Moyne and Adelphi University tied for third place in the NE-10 Southwest Division with a 10-10 record. By virtue of the conference's tie-breaking procedure, New Haven claims the third seed, Le Moyne is fourth and Adelphi gets the fifth seed. As the fourth seed, the Dolphins will host Stonehill College, the Northeast Division's fifth seed, on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
Senior guard
Lauren Salzbrenner (Sheboygan, Wis./Sheboygan North) led three Dolphins in double figures with a career-high 21 points, 19 of which came in the second half. Classmate
Vandell Andrade (Cranston, R.I./St. Mary's-Bay View/Rhode Island College) registered 12 of her 19 points in the second half, with 10 of those points coming in the fourth quarter. With her 13th point of the game, she became the fifth player in the program's history to record consecutive seasons with at least 400 points. Sophomore forward
Joanna Dobrovosky (Skaneateles, N.Y./Skaneateles) tallied 10 points and a team-best six rebounds.
Bradford led all scorers with 26 points, including 16 in the second half, while adding six rebounds and four assists. Hebert registered 24 points, including 14 in the opening half, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals and a pair of blocked shots.
After the teams split the first 16 points of the game, the Dolphins scored five straight points for their largest lead of the game. Freshman guard
Melanie Quijano (San Diego, Calif./Horizon Christian) buried a three-pointer and then sophomore forward
Corinne Poitevien (Bardonia, N.Y./Paramus Catholic (N.J.)) made a lay-up.
The teams traded points over the final 3:40 of the quarter as the Dolphins held a 17-12 lead after the opening period.
The Chargers tallied 16 of the first 21 points of the second quarter to take a six-point lead with 4:25 remaining. Hebert recorded eight of the points, Bradford scored six and Alexandria Kerr made a lay-up.
Le Moyne scored eight straight points to regain the lead before Bradford made two free throws in the final second to tie the score at 30 at halftime. Sophomore forward
Courtney Webster (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) accounted for four of the points, while Dobrovosky and Andrade made shots in the paint.
After the teams went back and forth over the first half of the third quarter, which resulted in a 42-41 Le Moyne lead following a Salzbrenner three-pointer, New Haven tallied 11 of the last 14 points of the quarter to take a 52-45 lead into the final quarter. Katia Oge tallied four of the 11 points as four Chargers scored in the span.
New Haven continued its run over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter with 11 of the first 14 points. India Dotson recorded five of the points as five New Haven players scored.
The Dolphins responded with a 15-5 run over 3:55 to get within five with one minute left. Quijano started the run with a three-pointer, Andrade scored six points around a three-pointer by Salzbrenner, who then added another three-pointer with 1:00 left to make it 68-63.
The Chargers went 7-of-10 from the foul line over the final 59 seconds around four points from Andrade and another three-pointer by Salzbrenner to close out the victory.
Le Moyne (13-13, 10-10 NE-10) defeated Stonehill in the regular season matchup, 65-55, on January 6 in Easton, Massachusetts.