Box Score DUDLEY, Mass.--The Western New England University women's basketball dug itself an early hole that the Golden Bears couldn't dig themselves out of on Thursday, absorbing a 66-51 loss at the hands of host Nichols College at the Bison Athletics Center. Western New England falls to 5-6 overall and 2-3 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference, while Nichols improves to 7-4 and is tied with WNE in the conference standings.

Sophomore Chelsea Vujs recorded game highs of 21 points and 16 rebounds, tying her career high in the former and setting a personal best in the latter. She first tallied 21 points against Eastern Nazarene on Feb. 16, 2013, and her previous high of 15 rebounds came versus Gordon on Nov. 28, 2012.

Amber Litwinko led four Bison scorers in double figures with 21 points and completed the double-double with a team-best 11 rebounds, followed by Alexis Wegrzynek and Devon Spirka with 11 points apiece and Sarah Whitestone came off the bench to notch 10.

Western New England dominated on the glass, outrebounding Nichols 48 to 40, but shot only 25.9 percent from the field (15-58) for the game.

In the first half, NC took advantage of 14 WNE turnovers to score 17 points en route to a 27-15 lead after 20 minutes. Western New England converted just 6 of 28 field goal attempts for 21.6 percent, while Nichols was 9-for-30 at 30.0 percent. The Bison also went 8-of-12 at the free throw stripe and the Golden Bears made both of their free throws.

Nichols took the lead for good when Spirka drilled a trey to break a 4-4 tie with 13 minutes and 38 seconds left.

After WNE's Sarah Shields scored her only points of the night on a lay-in to make it 20-15 with 2:16 remaining, Nichols scored the last seven points to end the half.

Western New England was able to be aggressive inside by getting to the free throw line 25 times, converting 20 points for 80.0 percent. Nichols went 14-of-21 for a 66.7 clip.

Nichols kept WNE at bay in the second half, maintaining a double-digit lead throughout and going up by as many as 18.

Western New England resumes home action at the Alumni Healthful Living Center on Saturday when Eastern Nazarene College comes to town for a CCC match-up starting at 1 p.m.