Russo Scores Twelve in AMCAT Loss

PAXTON, Mass – Kevin Bigelow's 0-3 AMCATS hosted the Nichols Bison Monday evening on the campus of Anna Maria College. While AMC was able to jump out to a first quarter lead things quickly turned in favor of the Bison who left Paxton with the 78-44 victory.

For the AMCATS, senior guard Kristina Russo (South Windsor, Conn) went in to double digits for the first time this season scoring 12 for the home team. The other 32 points were pretty evenly spread amongst the other players with junior center Shannon Hoffmiller (Oxford, Conn) going three-for-five from the free throw line to help her grab seven points of her own. Freshman guard Marissa Amidio (Oakham, Mass) hit two three-pointers in her 21 minutes of action off the bench for the AMCATS. Sophomore forward Hailey Moore (Worcester, Mass) scored six as well. In her first action of the season after recovering from injury, junior forward Catherine Loney (West Roxbury, Mass) was able to put up five points in 11 minutes off the bench.

On the other end of the court, Nichols saw four players go in to double digits all before the fourth quarter. Leading the way for the Bison was senior guard Brooke Packard (Dudley, Mass) who scored 20 in 28 minutes of play. She shot a whopping 17 times going eight-of-17 from the floor. Senior forward Allison Cerrato (Rockland, Mass) led all rebounders with 10 as well as scoring 11 points to pick up the double-double for the visitors. Along with Packard and Cerrato, sophomore guard Jessica Larsh (Bolton, Conn) and sophomore forward Amy Assad (Milford, N.H.) put up double digits for Nichols scoring 14 and 12 respectively.

Things started well for the AMCATS as they were able to jump out to a 14-10 first quarter lead but once the whistle blew for the second quarter the Bison took over going on a 29-7 run to go in to the break with a 39-21 lead. In the second half Anna Maria spread the ball around well as six players scored five or more points on the night but they couldn't keep up with Nichols who fired off 34 shots in the last two quarters, 75 total for the game. Russo had her best game of the year so far for AMC and wouldn't go down without a fight hitting twice from three-land but once the dust settled and the clocks read zero the Bison left with their first win of the year 78-44.

Next up, the AMCATS will travel to Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass to take on the 0-4 Lynx at 8pm on Thursday night.