BEVERLY, Mass. (February 20, 2016) - The Western New England University women's basketball utilized a 17-0 fourth quarter run to turn a four-point deficit into a 13-point advantage, defeating Endicott College 70-62 in its regular season finale this afternoon at MacDonald Gymnasium.
 
With the win, Western New England (16-9, 13-5 CCC) secures the No. 2 seed in next week's Commonwealth Coast Conference Tournament, and will host seventh-seeded Salve Regina in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night. Endicott (15-10, 13-5 CCC) drops to fourth in the conference standings due to the tiebreaking procedure, and will take on No. 5 seed Curry. Western New England's second place finish in the CCC standings matches its best in program history. 
 
The Golden Bears were led by sophomore guard Dorothy O'Neill (Staten Island, N.Y.), who scored a career-high 23 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field and 10-of-12 from the free throw line to go with five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Junior Emily Anderson (Rocky Hill, Conn.) added 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, five rebounds and two assists.
 
Senior forward Chelsea Vujs (Berlin, Conn.) rounded out Western New England's three double-figure scorers with ten points on 4-of-8 shooting, in the process moving past Yovana Brown '87 into sole possession of eighth place on the program's all-time scoring list. Vujs, who now has 1284 career points, also added a team-high eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in the road victory.
 
Senior guard Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) paced the Gulls with 23 points, a game-high ten rebounds, four blocks and two assists. Cuddy shot 7-of-16 from the field and was aided by a 8-of-9 effort at the charity stripe. Sophomore Hannah Shaw (Bar Harbor, Maine) contributed 15 points and five rebounds, while classmate Gabriella Coppola (Watertown, Mass.) chipped in with six points, four assists and three rebounds.
 
Western New England shot 33.3 percent (21-of-63) as a team, including 25 percent (5-of-20) from three point distance. Endicott finished with a 36.4 percent (20-of-55) clip, connecting on just 2-of-19 (10.5%) attempts from beyond the arc. The Golden Bears continued to do a great job taking care of the ball, turning it over just ten times.
 
Western New England, which led 24-12 after the first quarter and 37-26 at halftime, fell victim to an 8-2 Endicott run over the first 3:29 of the third quarter as the Gulls pulled back to within five (39-34). The home team continued to chip away at its deficit, pulling to within one (40-39) on a Coppola free throw with 3:44 left in the period, before taking the lead just over a minute later when Cuddy went 2-for-2 at the charity stripe. Endicott eventually built up a six-point advantage, but the Gulls led by just one heading into the fourth quarter as Anderson knocked down one of her three treys with 32 seconds remaining.
 
Cuddy scored the first four points of the fourth to give Endicott a 51-47 edge, but the Gulls would not score for over seven minutes after that point as Western New England took control of the contest. Junior Paige Young (Berlin, Conn.) got it started with a free throw at the 8:47 mark, and a miss on her second attempt led to another Anderson triple as the Golden Bears tied the score at 51.
 
Anderson and Young combined to score the next eight points as Western New England claimed an eight-point advantage (59-51), and O'Neill capped the decisive 17-0 run with five straight points, culminating in a three-pointer with 2:28 on the clock.
 
Endicott was unable to get closer than eight points the rest of the way, as O'Neill knocked down six free throws over the final 1:42 to seal the victory.