Seahawk offense keys second-half comeback

NEWPORT, R.I. - Junior point guard Laura Anne Dinan (Monterey, Mass.) scored seven straight points in the second half for Salve Regina University and three of her teammates had double figures in the final 20 minutes as the Seahawk women's basketball team defeated visiting Roger Williams University, 69-57, in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at the Rodgers Recreation Center.

Roger Williams (13-4; 8-2 CCC) suffers only its second conference loss. Salve Regina (9-8; 7-3 CCC) has a season-long four-game win streak.

In an evenly played first half, senior Ari Renwick (Westwood, Mass.) made 6-of-11 field goals including two 3-pointers and added two free throws for more than half (16) of the Hawk points in the period. Her steal at halfcourt led to a Seahawk foul at the buzzer on her layup attempt and Renwick sank a pair from the line for the 30-27 edge at intermission.

Salve Regina scored all of its first-half field goals (11) in the paint and added five free throws. Meaghan Harden (Sandwich, Mass.) went 5-for-5 from the floor, all inside, and led the Seahawks with 13 points at the break. The score was tied four times and there were eight lead changes before the half.

Shannon Cullen's (Walpole, Mass.) layup in the first minute of the second half matched Roger Williams' largest lead of the game, five points (32-27).

The Seahawks went on an 18-6 run over five and a half minutes, started by successive layups from Brianna Del Valle (Belchertown, Mass.) and Marissa Pendergast (Medfield, Mass.). Dinan, who got the second-half assignment to cover Renwick, had her dominant stretch with a 3-pointer, a short jumper, and a layup. Lisa Bucci (Irvington, N.Y.) ended the run with a 3-pointer for a seven-point Salve Regina lead, 45-38, at the 14:21 mark.

Freshman guard Katie Lowerre (Sharon, Mass.), Renwick, and Cullen hit consecutive jumpers for the Hawks to narrow the gap to one.

Harden sandwiched her two 3-pointers around a 12-1 run for the Seahawks from 11:50 to 8:43, and Salve Regina had its largest lead at 57-45. An 8-0 run for the visitors ensued on four layups, two from Renwick and one each from Angelica Ariola (Prospect, Conn.) and Amanda Keane (Wilmington, Mass.).

Salve Regina held Roger Williams' all-time leading scorer, Kaitlyn Bovee (Berlin, Conn.), to just five points on two of nine field goals. Bovee's layup at 2:19 cut the Hawks' deficit to six (63-57), but Salve Regina finished the scoring with a Pendergast layup and four free throws.

Harden led all scorers with 25 points (her sixth game this season with 25 or more points). Pendergast posted her team-leading eighth double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds, all off the defensive glass. Del Valle added 18 points and five steals.

Ariola added a dozen points for Roger Williams, including seven free throws.

Salve Regina's 42 second-half points trails only its 44-point second-half effort at UMass Dartmouth for most in a period this season. The .563 shooting percentage is the best for the Seahawks this season and ranks fourth-best all-time.

Salve Regina hosts Wentworth Institute of Technology and its third-year assistant coach, former Seahawk Erin Phillips, the 2010-11 CCC Player of the Year, on Wednesday. Roger Williams hosts Nichols College on Wednesday.