Box Score

Freshman G Jenny Gonsalves (Harwich, Mass.) opened her college basketball career with 25 points off the bench as UMass Lowell defeated Mercy College, 134-65, Saturday afternoon in a non-conference women's basketball clash at Mercy Gymnasium.

UMass Lowell set six school records in the win, including points scored in a game and half (UMass Lowell led 75-34 at the break), 3-point goals made (18) and attempted (43); field goals in a game (52) and field goal accuracy in a game (.598, 52 for 87).

UMass Lowell hosts Bentley Wednesday at 5:30.

UMass Lowell forced the Mavericks into 26 turnovers (while committing 16), and made the most of them, outscoring Mercy 32-19 off mistakes. The River Hawks also had advantages on second chances to the tune of 23-14, the result of a 19-13 edge on offensive rebounds.

Led by Gonsalves, the UMass Lowell reserves outscored that of Mercy's, 56-12.

Gonsalves came off the bench and shot 10 for 17 from the field and 4-10 from 3-point range while dishing out three assists and snatching four steals.

She led six River Hawks who scored in double figures as senior G Bianca Simmons (Middletown, Conn.) added 22 points, eight assists and six rebounds while shooting 9-12 from the floor and 2-2 from long range. Freshman F Amra Elezovic (Manchester, N.H.) added 21 points, six steals and four assists while shooting 8-13 from the field.

“We wore them down defensively,” said head coach Sarah Behn. “They hung with us for the first eight or nine minutes, but we opened up the lead by making some threes. It was a combination of our freshmen, seniors, everyone.”

Freshman G Lindsay Doucette (Hopkinton, Mass.) scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds while shooting 6-7 from the field and 4-4 from long range while junior Danielle DePierro (Tewksbury, Mass.) added 14 points (6-123 FGs) and five rebounds. Senior G Erika Sjoberg (Stockholm, Sweden) chipped in 10 points and four rebounds off the bench, shooting 4-7.

Sophomore F Shaniqua Lewis led Mercy with 16 points and eight rebounds while senior G Aysha Williams added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Junior G Maria Nardulli chipped in 11 points.

UMass Lowell broke free from an 18-16 lead with 13:38 left in the first half with a 21-5 run which gave it a 39-21 cushion with 8:26 remaining. Simmons led the run with seven points and the River Hawks never looked back.

“In the second half we played a zone the whole time,” Behn added. “We had a lot of our young kids in the game then in preparation for Bentley. We had really good offensive production, which I felt came off our pressure defense.”