DUDLEY, Mass. (January 7, 2016) - Led by four double-digit scorers and an impressive defensive effort, the Western New England University women's basketball team cruised to a 79-51 victory over Nichols College this evening in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at the Nichols Athletic Center.
 
Freshman forward Aliyah Brito (Brockton, Mass.) shined in her first collegiate start, registering her first career double-double with 13 points and ten rebounds. Classmate Allison Mishol (East Longmeadow, Mass.) provided a spark off the bench with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting in 17 minutes of action, while senior forward Chelsea Vujs (Berlin, Conn.) added 11 points and sophomore guard Dorothy O'Neill (Staten Island, N.Y.) finished with ten points, a career-high seven assists and five rebounds.
 
Sophomore forward Allison Cerrato (Rockland, Mass.) led Nichols in scoring with 13 points, and freshman Amy Assad (Millis, Mass.) chipped in 10 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
 
Trailing 20-18 after one quarter, Western New England outscored Nichols 24-17 in the second to take a 42-37 lead into halftime. Brito, who finished the first half with seven points, got the Golden Bears off to a strong start in the second by converting a traditional three-point play to extend the visitors' lead to eight (45-37).
 
Western New England broke the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the Bison by a 22-1 margin, and Nichols was never able to bring its deficit under 28 the rest of the way as the Golden Bears improved to 7-5 (4-1 CCC).
 
Western New England dominated the paint all game, outscoring the Bison 40-24, while also securing nine steals and scoring 21 points off turnovers. The Golden Bears limited Nichols to 31.8 percent (21-of-66) shooting for the game, including 16.2 percent (6-of-37) in the second half.
 
Both teams will be back in action on Saturday, as Western New England returns home to host Endicott and Nichols hits the road to take on Eastern Nazarene.