Women's Basketball Falls to Framingham State in Overtime, 72-67

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Freshman Lauren Donahue (Attletboro, Mass) drained a key three-pointer with just over a minute to play in overtime to help lift  the Framingham State University women's basketball team to a 72-67 win over MASCAC foe Bridgewater State University on Saturday afternoon.

The host Rams improve to 13-7 on the season and 5-4 in the MASCAC with the win, while the Bears fall to 12-9 overall and 6-3 in conference play.

Sophomore Sarah Palace (Auburn, Mass.) paced the Rams with 18 points and eight rebounds. Palace connected on 3 of 5 three-point attempts and went 7-for-8 from the line before fouling out late in the game.

Senior Nicole Bostic (Easton, Mass.) added 16 points for the hosts, while classmate Johanna Annunziata (Auburn, Mass.) contributed 12 points and a game high eight assists. Donahue finished with 12 points including the big three-pointer in overtime. Freshman Casie Thurber (Springfield, Mass.) collected a career high 20 rebounds and four blocked shots to go with her nine points.

The Bears were paced by junior Vanesa Conceicao (New Bedford, Mass.) who scored a career-high 28 points and was 7-of-13 from beyond the arc. Senior Rachel Kusz (Worcester, Mass.) scored all 15 of her points from downtown.

After a trading the lead a few times in the first frame a Kusz trey cut the Rams lead to 24-23 with just under six minutes to play. The Rams then went on an 8-0 run capped off by a Donahue trey to extend their lead to 31-23. The Bears answered with another Kusz three-pointer and would head into the break trailing 31-26.

The second stanza started with both teams trading the lead back and forth. Just about halfway through the period sophomore Jennie Lindland (Edgartown, Mass.) made a layup to give the Bears a 42-40 lead. The Rams then went on an 11-0 run capped by a Bostic basket with just under eight minutes to play to put the Rams up nine (51-42), the largest lead either team would have on the day.

The Bears answered a few minutes later with an 11-0 run of their own featuring two Kusz treys and a Conceicao trifecra to take a 56-53 advantage with 4:36 to go. Palace hit a three to put the Rams up 59-56 with under two minutes to go but the Bears would score a basket, get a stop and Conceicao nailed a three-pointer with 28 ticks left the put the Bears in the lead 61-59. Bostic would hit a layup for the Rams to tie the game at 61 with 13 seconds to go. The Bears missed an uncontested three with three seconds to go, got the offensive board but could not generate another quality chance as the game headed to overtime.

After trading a few baskets, a Christina Jaros (Plymouth) layup with 1:24 to play in overtime gave the Bears a 67-65 lead. Donahue responded with what proved to be the game-winning three-pointer to put the hosts back on top for good.  Bridgewater was unable to convert at the other end of the floor, and Donahue made 1 of 2 free throws to extend the Rams' advantage to 69-67.   The Bears were unable to put points on the board on the ensuing possession and Annunziata went 1-for-2 at the line to make it a three-point game (70-67) with just seven second remaining.  Freshman Payton Bruegger (Millbury) grabbed the rebound of Annunziata's missed free throw and knocked down a layup to account for the final score of 72-67.

Bridgewater was 26-of-69 (38%) from the floor including 13-of-29 (45%) from long range. The Rams shot 36% percent from the field (24-66) and from behind the arc (8-22). The Rams capitalized on the offensive boards collecting 19 second chance points to the Bears seven. Framingham made 24 trips (16-24 to the charity stripe compared to just four for BSU.

The Rams return to action Tuesday when they travel to MCLA for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off. The Bears will travel to Worcester State on the same day with action slated to start at 6:00 p.m.