Brooke Long adds 12 points in the win

RINDGE, N.H. (January 15, 2013) – Senior guard Tiffany Johnson (St. Albans, Vt.) laid in the game-winning basket with :09 remaining to lift the Franklin Pierce University women’s basketball team to a 72-71 win over New Haven on Tuesday night at The Fieldhouse in Rindge. The Ravens won their fifth-straight overall to improve to 10-4 and 7-3 in the Northeast-10, while the Chargers dipped to 6-8 and 5-5 in league play.

Johnson’s last-second layup was part of her game-high 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor. She also logged nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal.

Her heroics were needed after the Ravens watched New Haven mount a 12-2 run to go from being down 66-59 to up 71-68 with 2:25 remaining in the game.

Bria Moore sparked New Haven’s surge with six-consecutive points on a three-pointer and three-point play to pull the Chargers to within one. Kara Charette (Fairhaven, Mass.) stemmed the tide briefly with a layup for the Ravens, but Aquillin Hayes countered for New Haven with a layup at the other end of the court. Lauren Hebert knocked down a jumper following her offensive rebound on UNH’s next series to give the Chargers a one-point lead, and Moore capped it with a fastbreak layup off a Franklin Pierce turnover.

Both teams came up empty on each of their next possessions, but Franklin Pierce was finally able to pull within one with :32 remaining as Dyamond Gardner (Cambridge, Mass.) fed a nice pass to Charette in the post, who took a drop step and laid it in for the easy two.

The Ravens fouled Nikita Reddy at the other end and she had a chance to give the Chargers a little breathing room, but rimmed out both attempts.

Gardner grabbed the defensive rebound, Franklin Pierce called a time out, and the set play worked coming out of the break as Johnson drove her way down the left side of the paint and flipped a shot high off the glass which dropped through the net.

Ashley LeBlanc had one last attempt for UNH at the buzzer, but it came up short and senior forward Amanda Saab (Windham, N.H.), who was playing in her first came since an injury in December, grabbed the defensive board to seal the win.

Charette added 19 points for the Ravens, while senior guard Brooke Long (Richmond, Va.) netted 12. Junior forward Caitlin Hopkins (Holtsville, N.Y.) also provided a spark off the bench as she was 2-of-2 from the floor (3-of-3 FT), scored seven points, blocked a pair of shots and grabbed a rebound.

Franklin Pierce shot 41 percent from the field, while limiting the Chargers to just 37 percent shooting, but New Haven remained in the game by owning a commanding 55-39 advantage on the glass – including 26 offensive rebounds. Those offensive boards led to 24 second chance points for the Chargers, who also logged 40 points in the paint.

Moore led five Chargers who scored in double-figures as she tossed in 20 points. LeBlanc went for a double-double of 12 points and 16 rebounds, while Anh-Dao Tran pumped in 15. Hebert and Hayes each chipped in with 10 points.

New Haven charged out of the gates in the first half by scoring seven of the first 10 points. The Chargers held a four-point lead midway through the half, but Franklin Pierce countered with a 13-3 run, keyed by four points apiece from Johnson and Charette, to take a 32-26 lead with 3:53 remaining until halftime. The Ravens eventually took a 40-33 lead into intermission. 

Franklin Pierce continued to add to its lead in the second half and a jumper from Johnson at the 14:41 mark pushed the margin out to 15 at 53-38 – the Ravens largest lead of the night.

The lead continued to hover in the double-digit range for the next few minutes before New Haven slowly began to chip away and go on its run to take the brief three-point advantage.

The Ravens return to action on Saturday when they travel to Garden City, N.Y. to face Adelphi at 1:30 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce women’s basketball, please visit the team’s page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase women’s basketball apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)