Boston, MA - The Fisher College women's basketball team soared past Vermont Technical College in a non-conference match up Thursday evening by a score of 85-76. The Falcons improved to 3-15 on the season with the victory over Vermont Tech who moved to 5-14 on the season.
The game started in the Falcons' favor with a three-pointer by Murphy Carroll (Methuen, MA). The Falcons continued to increase their lead when they went up 9-0 over the Knights, forcing a visitor timeout. When the game resumed, the Knights hit the foul line for two shot, but were only able to sink one, 9-1 Falcons. Fisher held on to the lead, going on an 11-6 run to make the score 20-7.
With 10:21, Shakieya Roland-Drake (Boston, MA) hit her second three-pointer within a minute to put the Falcons up 23-7. Murphy Carroll then added five points to increase the Falcons lead 28-7. The Knights then went on a six-point run to cut the Falcons' lead to 13, 28-15. Alexis Akridge (Union, NJ) sunk a layup to bring the Falcons to 30, while the Knights sat at 15. Madison Carroll (Methuen, MA) was responsible for the next seven Falcons points in a 7-7 run, bringing the score to 37-22. The Knights added five more points before the end of the first half, while Camila Da Silva (Everett, MA) and Akridge added five for the Falcons, freezing the score at 42-27 at the half.
The Carroll twins lead the scoring in the first half for the Falcons with Murphy Carroll scoring 12 points and grabbing one rebound. Madison Carroll netted 11 points with three rebounds in the half. Other key Falcons in the first half were Akridge with nine points and Roland-Drake with eight points.
For the Knights, Paige Wells managed nine points in the first half while grabbing nine rebounds. Several other Knights scored four points in the first half.
The second half started with both teams fighting hard, but the Falcons went on a 10-5 break. Of those 10 points, Murphy Carroll had six, netting back-to-back shots from behind the arc. Fisher took its largest lead of the game when Roland-Drake hit a layup, giving Fisher a 21-point lead, 52-31. Kate Thygesen cut the Falcons' lead to nine when she hit a jumper for the Knights, 54-43.
With just over 11:00 minutes left to play, Murphy Carroll went to the line to shoot two, making both to put the Falcons up 60-47. Akridge forced a Knight turnover and pushed her way back to the Falcon basket, but teammate Roland-Drake drew a foul and hit both shots from the line, 62-47 Falcons. Murphy Carroll hit her fifth three of the night to put the Falcons up 65-47 with just under 10 minutes to play. Daisi Poole came back for the Knights and netted a three for the visitors to change the score to 68-50.
The Knights went on a 10-point run to bring the score to 73-60 in favor of the Falcons, with just over six minutes left to play. Christine Briggs (Rumford, ME) hit a layup after an Akridge three-pointer to put the Falcons up by 16 points, 80-64. With time winding down on the clock, the Knights cut the Falcon lead to 14 with Alyssa Cassanelli hitting two free throws with just over a minute left. The teams ran the clock out, finalizing the score at 85-76, with a Falcon victory.
Murphy Carroll netted a total of 23 points in the contest while rebounding two shots. Twin sister Madison Carroll scored 20 points while grabbing five rebounds in the victory. Other key Falcons were Roland-Drake (19 points, seven rebounds), Akridge (16 points, nine rebounds) and Briggs (five points, 12 rebounds).
Paige Wells led the way for the Knights with a double-double, 23 points and 18 rebounds. Poole scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Knights in the defeat. Other key players for Vermont Tech were Thygesen (13 points, five rebounds) and Haille Burkart (10 points, five rebounds).
The Falcons return to action Saturday, January 31, at 4:00 pm when they play host to Pine Manor College at the Fecteau-Leary Gymnasium in Lynn, MA. This game is a rescheduled game from January 24 that was postponed because of a snowstorm.