DURHAM, NH–New Hampshire downed visiting NJIT, 70-48, Saturday evening inside Lundholm Gymnasium in America East Conference Women's Basketball action.
New Hampshire, winners of two in a row, held NJIT to a season-low 48 points, improving to 8-11 overall, 2-4 in the America East while the Highlanders suffer its second straight loss in conference play moves to 6-12 overall, 3-2 in the conference.
Alejandra Zuniga, the America East leading scorer in points, scored her ninth 20-point game this season, shooting 7-for-13 from the field, 6-of-7 from the free throw line to go along with four rebounds.
Audrey Kormann scored four points and grabbed four rebounds in 14 minutes of action off the bench while Marissa Gingrich chipped in seven points.
New Hampshire jumped out to an early 11-4 lead and 13-6 heading into the under-five media timeout. Alejandra Zuniga scored all six points for the Highlanders. Over the next 8:30, New Hampshire went on a 22-4 run (14-0 over a span of 5:25) to push the Wildcat advantage to 19 points, 25-6 after the first 10 minutes. Eva DeChent led all scorers with 14 points on 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-5 from three-point range as the Wildcats shot an impressive 52.9 percent from the field (9-for-17) and 80 percent from downtown (4-of-5).
NJIT opened the second period on a 14-0 run to pull within five points, 25-20, capped by five straight from Marissa Gingrich with 2:30 left to go in the first half and held the Wildcats scoreless for over eight minutes. New Hampshire scored four points to close out the half ahead by nine, 29-20.
For the tale of two quarters in the first half, New Hampshire outscored NJIT in the first quarter, 25-6 and in the second period, the Highlanders outscored the Wildcats 14-4 to pull within nine points of the Wildcats at the half.
New Hampshire's Eva DeChent led all scorers with 14 points (all coming in the first period) while NJIT'a Alejandra Zuniga scored six points and Marissa Gingrich chipped in five points in the first 20 minutes.
Zuniga scored the first five points for NJIT in the third quarter and a three-pointer by Aria Myers at the 6:40 mark closed the Wildcat gap to five points, 35-30. New Hampshire scored five straight points and pushed the Wildcat lead back to double-digits, 10, 40-30, with less than six minutes. New Hampshire went on a 9-2 spurt over 3:30 to extend the Wildcat advantage to 15, 49-34, on a three-pointer in the corner by Maggie Cavanaugh at the 2:12 mark. The Wildcats, which scored 26-third quarter points, took a 17-point lead at the end of the third quarter, 55-38.
The Wildcats cruised to a 70-48 home victory, notching its second league win of the season for a home sweep this weekend with wins over UMBC and NJIT.
Next Up
After the two-game road swing, NJIT will return to Newark and welcome Vermont on January 23 (6pm) and UAlbany on January 25 (1pm).
Stay Connected
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