Saturday, February 4, 2012 (Newton, Massachusetts) - Through the first 12 minutes of the contest, the Mount Ida College women's basketball team powered through a 17-0 run leading the entirety of the contest wire-to-wire capturing a 61-43 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) victory over visiting Emerson College Saturday afternoon in Newton, Massachusetts.
All but two of the 10 players that saw time for the Mustangs scored points. This is the first time in head coach Jack Casey's four year tenure that Mount Ida has topped the Lions.
The hosts improve to an overall record of 11-10 with a league slate of 5-4 teetering on a potential home play-off game for the post-season while the Lions fall to 7-15 for the year slumping to 4-6 in GNAC action.
Mount Ida was led by senior guard and captain Shannon Wood (Gorham, ME/Catherine McAuley/Bryant University) with a game high 14 points and eight assists while sophomore forward/guard Abbey Fedigan (New Fairfield, CT/New Fairfield) chipped in 13 points and five caroms. Wood was impressive going 6-15 from the floor and 2-7 from downtown. Senior Jeileen Rivera (Springfield, MA/Springfield Central) and freshman Allison O'Connor (Leominster, MA/Leominster) tallied nine points each while Riviera notched six steals.
The visitors saw two double-doubles for the contest led by freshman Kristin Brice (Indiana, PA/Indiana Area Senior) with 13 points and 10 caroms while junior forward Olivia DiNucci (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler Area) added 10 points and 12 boards. Lion Sophomore forward Olivia Connors (Windham, NH/Salem) chipped in 10 points and six boards respectively.
The Mustangs never relinquished the lead from the opening basket of the game hovering around the 20 point lead mark for the most of the contest eventually going ahead by a game-high 23 points with five remaining.
Mount Ida shot the ball very well at 44 percent from the floor and 34 percent from downtown. The visitors had a tough day shooting at 30 percent form the floor and only 14 percent from beyond the arc. The Mustangs created 28 total turnovers totaling 17 steals for the contest.
The hosts will travel to GNAC member Albertus Magnus College Tuesday afternoon with game time slated for 7:00 p.m.