Box Score DUDLEY, Mass. (Feb. 18) – The Nichols College women's basketball team edged visiting Gordon College, 66-62 in overtime to win its Commonwealth Coast Conference regular-season finale Saturday afternoon. Bison senior forward Chelsea Shaughnessy broke the College's single-season steals record early in the first half, and finished the game with four. She wraps up the regular season with 113 steals, eclipsing the former mark, set by MaryLynn Skarzenski '09 by two.

Carly Turpel led the Bison (6-19, 5-13 CCC) with a career-high 19 points with a 4-of-5 effort from three-point range, while Hayley Zophin added 13 point and nine rebounds. 

The Scots' Leah Tallamy led all scorers with 33 points, netting 20 of them in the first half, and recorded a double-double with 14 rebounds. Brooke Kratche added a double-double for Gordon (7-19, 2-16 CCC) with 20 points and 10 boards. Aly Towle dished a game-high 12 assists.

The game was close throughout much of the first half until Turpel hit three three-pointers amidst an 11-4 Nichols run that saw the Bison jump ahead by nine, 22-13 with less than seven minutes left in the opening half. The Scots cut the lead to three four minutes later, but Nichols carried a 34-28 advantage into the locker room after Sarah Whitestone hit one of three free throws after the buzzer had sounded.

Gordon opened the second half on a 13-4 run to take a three-point lead with the first five minutes of the frame, but Nichols quickly flipped the game back in its favor with back-to-back buckets by Zophin and Alexis Wegrzynek. The teams traded the lead again before Nichols went up by five courtesy of a Zophin layup and back-to-back buckets from Turpel. Gordon answered, however, to tie the game up, 56-56, with under a minute to play with a three-pointer from Towle and a jumper by Skylar Bareford.

Shaughnessy came up with a clutch steal on a late Gordon pass, intercepting the ball and immediately calling time out with 19 seconds left to set up the Bison's final shot attempt. With five ticks left on the clock, Nichols' jumper just missed, sending the game to extra time.

Kratche was on-point for the Scots early in the OT, hitting a pair of free throws and a jumper to keep the Scots ahead by two early, but Bison junior Kristina Lindgren and sophomore Kasey Pelletier combined for seven of the game's final nine points to give the Bison a two-possession lead with 10 seconds remaining. Lindgren capped the game with a steal as time expired.

The Bison bench outscored the Scots' 45-0, and Nichols parlayed 22 Gordon turnovers into 16 points. Gordon led in points in the paint by a 14-point margin (34-20) and outrebounded the home team, 46-34.

Nichols advances to the Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship Tournament for the first time since the 2008-09 season, and will travel to Biddeford, Maine, on Tuesday to take on top-seeded University of New England in the quarterfinals.

Box Score