Weekend win lifts CHC women to 5-1
by TOM UTESCHER
With a balanced offensive effort in which seven different players scored six or more points, the women's basketball squad at Chestnut Hill College downed D'Youville College last Saturday afternoon, 64-55.
The Griffins improved to 5-1 on the season, while guard Lisa Modaferri's 25-point performance for visiting D'Youville went for naught as the Lady Spartans slipped to 3-4.
"We have a good nucleus of kids and we play as a team," noted first-year CHC coach Jackie deMarteleire. "It's not just one star; each game it seems like someone else steps up."
Power forward Andrea Carter led the locals in scoring with 11 points and in assists with four, and the Griffins received nine points from guard Kelly McGrath and eight apiece from Amy Ciaburri (12 rebounds, two blocks), Kate Quintus (five rebounds, two steals), Bethanne Castone and Lindsay Tornetta. The other scorers for CHC were Judy Parise (six), Keara Clauss (four), and Kate Gable (two).
"A lot of people have a problem matching up with Andrea in the post," said de Marteleire, "then at other times the guards were stepping up for us."
The Lady Spartans stayed right with the Griffins early in the contest, and D'Youville was up a point at the ten-minute mark, 14-13. Three-pointers from opposite sides by Castone and McGrath initiated a 16-4 run by Chestnut Hill. Coming off of the bench, Tornetta stuck three jumpers and Quintus hit a lay-up and a pair of free throws as the Griffins took a 30-19 lead with four minutes left in the half. They still were ahead by 11 at the interlude, 36-25.
"Kate Quintus does a fantastic job coming off the bench for us," deMarteleire said of the sophomore, a Lafayette Hill native who attended Nazareth Academy. "She's like a coach's dream because she always does what I ask of her. She's a hard worker and she knows the game of basketball."
The two ballclubs maintained the halftime status quo well into the second stanza; with eight minutes gone it was still an 11-point affair, 45-34. Now Chestnut Hill opened it up a bit. Parise, Ciaburri and Tornetta all hit lay-ups, and from the line Clauss made one foul shot and Gable popped in two, putting the hosts up by a full 20 points at 54-34.
The Spartans made one last lunge, getting five points from Modaferri and four from center Tracey Travis as they scored 11 straight points. It was now 54-45 with 3:42 left to play.
"It always comes back to rebounding, and during that stretch we weren't doing a good job of boxing out," deMarteleire commented. "They were getting second and third opportunities to score."
Fortunately for the hosts they were already in the double bonus, and here Chestnut Hill's foulshooting, which had been mediocre up to that point, put the brakes on the Griffins' slide. In the last three minutes, D'Youville's Modaferri and Travis both fouled out of the game, while McGrath, Carter, Quintus and Parise each went to the free throw line in turn and shot two-for-two. A reverse lay-up by Carter was the only field goal the Griffs would need to nail down a nine-point victory.
Forward Katie Nicholson finished with eight points for the Lady Spartans, and Travis scored four points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.
