NORTHFIELD, Vt. - February 5, 2019 - The Colby-Sawyer women's basketball team erased a two-point halftime deficit with a strong third quarter and hung on for a 55-53 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) road win at Norwich Tuesday evening. 

Colby-Sawyer improves to 14-8 overall and 6-3 in the GNAC. The Chargers will celebrate senior day and alumni day on Saturday when they host Suffolk at 1 p.m. Norwich drops to 7-14 overall and 2-7 in conference action. 

Junior Tianna Sugars (Oxford, Maine) her fourth-straight and 11th overall double-double of the season with game-highs of 23 points and 13 rebounds. Junior Lexie Hamilton (Sunapee, N.H.) finished with 11 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Sophomore Joslin Wainwright (Plainfield, N.H.) added 10 points and four rebounds. 

Mary Casamassa (Wexford, Pa.) led the way for Norwich with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting along with six rebounds and three assists. Caileigh Travers (Valley Cottage, N.Y.) went 3-4 from deep for nine points.

Norwich opened the game with a 7-2 run before Colby-Sawyer responded with a 12-0 run, capped by a Mackenzie Buzzell (Lovell, Maine) bucket, to take a 14-7 lead. The Chargers led 16-14 after 10 minutes. 

Sandra Carlsten (Bandhagen, Sweden) made a trey to give the home team a 17-16 to begin the second. The frame went back and forth, but the Cadets took a 34-32 lead into the break after a Riley Bennett (Hopkinton, N.H.) baseline jumper. 

The Chargers controlled the third quarter, outscoring Norwich by a 13-7 margin to take a 49-41 lead into the final stanza. Sugars scored eight points in the frame. 

The Cadets battled back in the fourth holding Colby-Sawyer to just one made field goal. Casamassa poured in her eighth fourth quarter point with a bucket in the paint with two minutes to play and cut the Colby-Sawyer lead to 55-53. After neither team could muster anything on offense in the final two minutes, Norwich grabbed a defensive rebound in the waning seconds and put up a long heave that fell short as time expired, sending the Chargers home with the two-point victory.  

The rebounding battle was even at 27-27, while Colby-Sawyer held a wide margin in points in the paint, 34-14. Norwich had a 22-5 advantage in bench scoring. 

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