Box Score

DUDLEY, Mass. – Senior Devon Spirka (Wilmington, Vt.) led a balanced scoring attack with 20 points as the Nichols College women's basketball team snapped a three-game losing skid with a 67-59 win over Eastern Nazarene College Thursday night in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) at the Nichols Athletic Center.

Junior Amber Litwinko (Berlin, Conn.) registered a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four steals in 36 minutes of action. Classmate Alexis Wegrzynek (Wilbraham, Mass.) tallied 14 points, six rebounds, one block and one steal while senior Kasey Pelletier (Dunstable, Mass.) went for 12 points – including a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Senior Abbie Tonello (Bourne, Mass.) paced the Lions (5-15, 1-12 CCC) with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting (75 percent), and also snared a team-high eight rebounds. Junior Ruby Leon (Fairfield, Conn.) and sophomore Jordan Grays (Elk Grove, Calif.) each finished with eight points.

Nichols (10-10, 5-8 CCC) fell into an early 17-4 hole eight minutes into the contest as Tonello went off for six points and Grays scored five. The Bison then ripped off a 23-9 run to close the half and take a 27-26 lead to the locker room. Litwinko led all scorers with nine points through the opening 20 minutes while defensively, the Bison held the Lions without a field goal for the final 6:15 of the stanza. Tonello's six points was tops on ENC. The first half was also marred by a combined 26 fouls.

The second half featured seven ties and numerous lead changes. The Lions went up by five early on a Tonello layup at 16:55 before the Bison moved ahead by three on a layup from Spirka with 11:29 on the clock. Nichols went up by four with 6:34 to go courtesy of a layup by Wegrzynek and a jumper from Litwinko, but two free throws from sophomore Christina Saint-Pierre (Lantana, Fla.) and a basket by Leon tied the game at 54 at the 5:26 mark.

The Bison took the lead for good when Litwinko converted a layup with 3:05 to go. Just over a minute later, she made another layup to push the lead to three, and four-straight free throws from Pelletier down the stretch sealed the win.

"The best thing that we did tonight was play mature the last five minutes of the game," said Nichols second-year head coach Alice Mullen. "Eastern Nazarene is scrappy and can play with anybody. We had some big defensive rebounds down the stretch and we hit our free throws. Four of our student-athletes were in double-figures, which really helped us out. We distributed the ball well. It was a good team win."

Nichols shot 52 percent in the second half (15-of-29) and closed the evening 20-of-28 from the line (71 percent). The Lions shot 32 percent and saw the Bison turn 15 turnovers into 11 points. Their bench did outscore Nichols reserves, 22-6.

Nichols plays at Western New England on Saturday. The Lions host Wentworth Saturday at 1 p.m.