WOMEN'S HOOPS STAYS HOT WITH 65-44 WIN OVER JWU

PROVIDENCE, RI - The Emmanuel College women's basketball team posted a 65-44 victory against Johnson & Wales University in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest at the Wildcat Center on Tuesday evening.

Johnson & Wales was led by sophomore Bobbie Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) who tallied a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists while freshman Ashley Thompson  (Bellingham, Mass.) and Sarah Duryea (Middle Village, N.Y.) each had nine in the setback for the Wildcats.

Senior Vanessa Bramante (Stoneham, Mass.) and sophomore Alexis Ezell (Acworth, Ga.) both tallied 14 points for Emmanuel while junior Sarah Higgins (Groveland, Mass.) was also in double figures with 11 points for the Saints.

It was a back and forth battle in the early stages of the contest with Johnson & Wales holding the 17-16 lead after a layup by Whitehead with 8:59 left in the first half.  Emmanuel then used a 10-1 run, capped by a layup from Higgins to take their largest lead of the first half, 26-18 with 2:38 left on the clock.  JWU connected on just 25.0% (9-of-32) of their shots from the field while Emmanuel hit 50.0% (14-of-28) for the stanza.

After JWU cut the lead to just five points, 30-25 on a layup by Thompson early in the second half, Emmanuel then used a 12-0 run to push the advantage up to a game-high 17 points as a layup by senior Jennifer Bujnowski (Salem, N.H.) made the score 72-25.  The Wildcats trimmed the lead to 12 midway through the second half, but couldn't get any closer as Emmanuel pulled away down the stretch for the 65-44 victory.

With the setback Johnson & Wales drops to 10-9 on the year and 2-3 in the GNAC while Emmanuel improves to 11-9 for the season with a 6-0 record in league play.  The Wildcats will return to action on Thursday, February 5th when they travel to Mount Ida for a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest starting at 6:00 p.m.  Emmanuel is also back in action on Thursday when they host St. Joseph of Connecticut at 7:00 p.m.

*Release courtesy of JWU Sports Information Dept.