Erin Phillips sinks Anna Maria with 31 points; Seahawks win 62-48

NEWPORT, R.I. - Junior guard Erin Phillips [Morristown, N.J.] scored a career-high 31 points to lead defending The Commonwealth Coast Conference champion Salve Regina University women's basketball team to a 62-48 victory over Anna Maria College in the league opener for both teams at the Rodgers Recreation Center.

The Seahawks trailed by three early (6-3) after a layup by AMCat freshman center Chelsea Blair [Holland, Mass.] before Phillips scored her team's next 19 points and gained a 22-14 advantage. A six-point advantage at the break (26-20) grew to nine when Phillips swished her second 3-pointer 11 seconds into the second half.

Seahawk sophomore center Lindsay Shorey [Ashland, Mass.], who missed the entire first half due to a teacher's exam, put Salve Regina up 13 (39-26) with a jumper in the paint. Anna Maria (8-4; 0-1 TCCC) went on an 8-0 run to narrow the deficit to five.

A 3-pointer from junior guard Kimberly Horan [Webster, Mass.] just under the 10-minute mark put the Seahawk advantage into double-digits for the rest of the game. Shorey and point guard Kaitlyn Birrell [Hope R.I.] both finished with 10 points apiece. Junior forward Olivia Browning [Trumbull, Conn.] grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

Blair finished with a double-double (14 points, 11 boards) for Anna Maria which had its three-game win streak snapped. The AMCats are winless in five games on the road.

Salve Regina (6-6; 1-0 TCCC), winners of five of the last eight conference titles including an improbable three victories on the playoff road last year, returns to action at Regis College (5:30 p.m.) on Tuesday. Anna Maria hosts Gordon College on Tuesday.