Vikings Fall to Lyons on Road

NORTON, Mass. – Coming off an exciting win against Clark on Thursday, Salem State women's basketball hoped to notch their second road win of the week as they traveled to Norton, Massachusetts to take on the Wheaton College Lyons. The Lyons outscored the Vikings by 23 points in the final two stanzas to take the 64-45 victory, dropping Salem State to 3-6 on the season.

Ernidia Goncalves (Everett, Mass.) had another impressive showing for the Vikings, notching 19 points to go with nine rebounds while Abuk Teng (Manchester, N.H.) was just shy of a double- double with six points and 10 rebounds in the loss.

The Lyons were spearheaded by Greta Minos (Boston, Mass.) who did a little of everything on the afternoon with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Teammates, Maddie Mueller (Carver, Mass.) and Abby Fernandes (Assonet, Mass.) each tacked on 10 points in the win.

After trailing to start the game, the Vikings went on a 9-0 run behind the coattails of Goncalves to take the 9-4 advantage with seven minutes to play in the opening stanza. Five minutes later, Salem would find their largest lead of the first after back-to-back layups put them on top by six. The Lyons were able to add on one more basket to cut into the Viking's lead and start the second quarter with the score at 15-11.

The Lyons used the opening half of the second to slowly creep their way back into the game, then with just over four minutes till the half, Madeline Duwe (Greenville, S.C) nailed a shot from behind the arc to bring the game to 21 all. After finding themselves in another standstill at 25, the Vikings went on to score four- unanswered points to close the half with the slight 27-23 advantage.

The home team struck first to open the second half of action, as a three pointer and layup gave the Lyons their first lead since the opening minutes of the game. After going 1-2 from the line, Salem would tie the game at 30 a piece with five minutes to play in the third before Wheaton was able to give themselves a four- point cushion after an easy two and a perfect trip to the charity stripe. Wheaton would only allow Salem to get within three before a last second bucket to close the quarter gave the home team their largest lead thus far as the buzzer sounded and the score read 41-35.

Less than a minute into the final quarter of action, the Lyons tacked on back-to-back buckets to give them a double- digit lead over the Vikings. But shortly after a steal by Kylie Gates (Pembroke, Mass.) was able to give the Vikings some momentum which resulted in a trip to the free throw line where they were able to bring the game to 46-37. But nine points would be as close as they would get as the Lyons went on to score eight unanswered points, putting the Vikings at a 17- point deficit which would allow the home team to coast to the eventual 64-45 victory over the Vikings.