Vikings Conquer Trailblazers, 60-50

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Salem State women's basketball completed a 2-0 week after securing the 60-50 victory over MCLA this afternoon, improving to 6-5 in conference play and 11-13 overall.

Kylie Gates (Pembroke, Mass.) notched another near triple-double with 13 points, eight assists, and nine rebounds with Abuk Teng (Manchester, N.H.) and Alyssa Genness (Belfast, Maine) rounded out the scoring with 13 and 12 points, a piece, in the win.

Hailey Peabody (West Springfield, Mass.) led all scorers with 20 points to go along with nine rebounds while Kristie Zator (Windham, Conn.) netted 16 of her own in the effort.

How it Happened:

•  After losing their slight edge two minutes into the game, the Vikings went on a 12-2 run to reclaim the lead and take the nine-point tilt (16-7) with less than four minutes to play in the opening stanza. The Trailblazers were able to hold Salem to 16 and add four points of their own to close out the quarter and cut their deficit to four points, bringing the score to 16-12.
• The Trailblazers scored the first four points of the second to take the slight one-point edge over the Vikings, but they would not score again till the final 12 seconds of the half while the Vikings tacked on 16 of their own to go into the break with the 13-point advantage (32-19).
• The Vikings opened the half on another tear, scoring eight unanswered points to take the commanding 21-point edge (40-19), with just over 7 minutes to play in the third.
• MCLA was able to cut the deficit to 13 after a 6-0 run brought the score to 44-31 with 1:39 to play in the third, but when the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the quarter the Trailblazers found themselves down by 15 (48-33) heading into the final ten minutes of action.
• With 5:59 to play in the game, the Trailblazers mounted a comeback, going on a 7-0 run to come within 10 points (55-45) of Salem. Unfortunately for the home team, the comeback would be too little, too late as the Vikings would go on to take the eventual 60-50 MASCAC victory.