MCLA nips St. Joe's (CT) in season opener 63-61

WEST HARTFORD, Conn - Jen Wehner's jump shot with 21 seconds left broke a 61-all tie as MCLA defeated Saint Joseph College 63-61 Tuesday in a non-league game at the O'Connell Center.

It was the season-opener for MCLA; Saint Joseph is 1-1.

Wehner (Cooperstown, NY), a sophomore forward, had a team-high 13 points and 11 rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench and sophomore forward Olivia McMullen (Broadalbin, NY) scored 10 for the Trailblazers.

Junior guard Hilary Perks had a nice opener adding 7 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals.  Freshman guard Lucy Tremblay added nine points in her debut, while senior guard Ali Leveille knocked down a pair of three pointers en route to her nine point effort.  Senior Laura Silverman had a game high 13 rebounds in the victory as well.   

Both team built sizable leads. Saint Joseph went ahead 16-7 to start the game and led throughout most of the first half on the way to a 40-34 halftime lead. Royce scored 13 in the first half and Saint Joseph made six of 13 three-point attempts.

MCLA started the second half on a 20-3 run to take its biggest lead at 54-43 with 9:11 to play. Saint Joseph then chipped at its deficit and took two, one-point leads, the last coming at 61-60 on a Terese Cerins basket with 2:09 to play.

Nine players scored for MCLA, which had a 28-7 advantage in bench scoring and a 15-5 edge in second-chance points.

MCLA is back in action on Friday when they play Simmons at the Elms College Classic at 6pm.