Women's Basketball Scores Last Second Bucket to Knock Off Colby-Sawyer

PAXTON, Mass: The Anna Maria Women's Basketball Team defeated Colby-Sawyer, 53-52, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) game Wednesday evening.

Anna Maria improves to 10-15 overall and finishes the GNAC regular season at 7-5. The AMCATS will return to action next week with a quarterfinal game in the GNAC Tournament. Colby-Sawyer drops to 14-10 overall and 6-5 in the GNAC. The Chargers will conclude the regular season on Saturday with a 1 p.m. GNAC contest at Emmanuel.

The final three minutes of the game was filled with drama as the lead see-sawed. The game was knotted at 47-47 with 2:44 to play when Colby-Sawyer received a traditional three-point play by junior Tianna Sugars (Oxford, Maine) to give the home team a 50-47 lead. On the ensuing possession, Anna Maria's Amber Wilson (New York, N.Y.) made a layup to cut the deficit to a point.

After a missed field goal by the Chargers, the visitors got a couple of free throws from Sienna Johnson (Brockton, Mass.) to go in front 51-50 with 56 seconds left. With 15 seconds showing on the clock, Colby-Sawyer junior Kristen Donaghey (Franklin, Mass.) was fouled and calmly knocked down both free throws to give the Chargers a 52-51 lead. The AMCATS were then fouled setting up an inbounds play under the basket. With :09 left to play, sophomore Franchesca Hammond (Worcester, Mass.) inbounded the ball to Wilson, who was open under the hoop, and she converted the layup for the final bucket of the game.

Wilson finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals for the AMCATS. Junior Sierra Johnson (Brockton, Mass.) led the team with 15 points. Sienna Johnson finished with 11 points.

Colby-Sawyer was led by Tianna Sugars. She recorded her 13^th double-double of the season and sixth-straight with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Donaghey also notched a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Mackenzie Buzzell (Lovell, Maine) contributed nine points.