PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Despite a tough shooting night, the University of Southern Maine Huskies got just enough out of its offense to earn its third Little East Conference win of the season defeating the Rhode Island College Anchorwomen 56-46 in a women's basketball game Wednesday night.

The win is the second straight for the Huskies who improve to 8-6 overall and 3-1 in the Little East.  Rhode Island College, suffering its fifth consecutive loss, drops to 3-9 overall and 1-3 in the LEC.

            Senior Gretchen Anderson (Kittery Point, Maine/St. Thomas Aquinas) led three Huskies in double-figures with a game-high 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the field, including a 4-for-5 effort from three-point range.  Senior Megan Pelletier (Winslow, Maine/Messalonskee) added 12 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots, while classmate and front court teammate Ella Ramonas (Portland, Maine/Deering) added 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.  Freshman guard Alexa Srolovitz (Montreal, Quebec/New Hampton) and sophomore Kayla Stacy (Auburn, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) led the Huskies in rebounding with eight and seven respectively, while each player passed off five assists.

            RIC senior Devin Hill (Danielson, Conn./Killingly) led her team with 12 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots, while sophomore Jessa Rubera (Newton, Mass./Newton South) chipped in with 11 points.  Alex Moore added nine points, nine rebounds, two assists and five steals.

            Led by five points from Anderson, USM held a slim 12-9 advantage over RIC after the first quarter.  The Huskies outscored RIC 17-10 in the second quarter to snag a 29-19 lead at the break. Ramonas scored seven of her 10 points in the second quarter, getting it done on the free throw line making 5-of-6. 

            RIC opened the third on an 8-3 run, making it a two-possession game on a jumper from freshman Molly Phillips (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East), 32-27, with 5:54 left in the quarter, but Southern Maine answered back with back-to-back three-pointers from senior Jill Madden (North Andover, Mass.) to sandwich a RIC basket from Moore to extend the Huskies lead to 38-29 with 2:45 on the clock. RIC outscored USM 3-1 in the final minutes of the quarter, but the Huskies' remained in front 39-32.

            Anderson started the fourth quarter with a three-pointer to put the Huskies' up 42-32, before RIC used four straight points on a three from Moore and one of two free throws from Phillips to again make it a two-possession game, 42-36, with 6:49 to play, but it was as close as the Anchorwomen would get the rest of the way. 

            Southern Maine finished the game shooting just 30.2 percent (19-for-63) from the field, but held RIC to 29.1 shooting (16-for-55) and forced the Anchorwomen into 20 turnovers.  Southern Maine's bench outscored the RIC bench 11-3, led by six points from Madden.

Southern Maine remains in its Little East Conference portion of its schedule and hosts UMass Dartmouth on Saturday (1:00 p.m.)  Rhode Island College travels to Keene State on Saturday (1:00 p.m.) for a LEC contest. 

–cac–