QUINCY, Mass. - Eastern Nazarene College led by as many as 11 in the first half, but the tides were reversed as Curry College rallied back in the second half to take an 11-point lead of its own as the final buzzer sounded. With the 60-49 win, the Colonels improve to 5-9 overall and 3-4 in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) games. The Lions, who dropped their second straight contest at home, fall to 7-8 and 4-4 in CCC play.

ENC started the game blazing hot, jumping out to a 13-2 lead just 4:30 into the contest after a 3-point basket from freshman Kori Sorensen. Two made free-throw by CC’s freshman Kylie Beltz narrowed the margin to nine, but the Lions responded to hold their eleven point advantage at the 12:46 mark after junior Shardae Brown powered one up in the paint for the score.

The Colonels continued to battle, chipping away at the Lions who went four minutes without scoring between 12:45 and 8:22. ENC junior Mel Green would hit a jumper to end the dry spell, but Curry gained momentum, reducing the Lion advantage to three points with 5:14 to play. From there it was back and forth; ENC pulled away to go up 26-16 with 2:06 left to play, but CC’s resilience continued and the Lion lead was cut to three going into the break.

In the second half, ENC struggled to hold on to their lead against a determined Curry squad. With 6:56 remaining, freshman Jeannette Fallon tied the game at 43-43 with a jumper in the paint. It was the Colonels the rest of the way, as ENC could not regain the momentum and lost on their home court for just the second time all year.

Beltz’s 17 points led all players in the contest; she had a great night for the Colonel’s, finishing one rebound shy of the double-double, dishing out a team-high five assists and tallying three steals. Curry classmate Jeannette Fallon scored 12 in the contest, and junior teammate Hailey Rafferty finished with 10 rebounds and seven points.

The Lions were led by sophomore Dianna Bonds who put up impressive all-around numbers. She scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out four assists, stole the ball twice and blocked three of the Colonels shots in just 28 minutes. Junior Shardae Brown also had success, scoring ten, collecting eight rebounds and garnering two blocks. Classmate Alexis Malloy rounded out the versatile group with eight points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in the loss.

Eastern Nazarene heads to Endicott on Saturday to face the Gulls at 3:00p.m. Curry returns home to face Wentworth in a 1:00p.m. match-up the same day. (Recap courtesy of ENC Sports Information)