Jessica Hurd made several clutch baskets late in Saturday's win

RINDGE, N.H. (January 25, 2014) – Junior forward Jessica Hurd (Kegworth, England) scored a team-high 17 points, and knocked down several critical baskets late, to help the Franklin Pierce University women’s basketball team pull away late for an important 76-68 win over Southern Connecticut State on Saturday afternoon at The Fieldhouse in Rindge.

The Ravens won their second straight and sixth in the last seven to improve to 10-7 overall and 7-5 in the Northeast-10, while the Owls dipped to 9-9 and 5-7 in league play.

Hurd scored six crucial points late in the game after the Ravens had seen their 15-point lead evaporate into just a two-point advantage (63-61) with 4:25 remaining in the game.

She answered Southern Connecticut’s 17-4 run with a jumper in the low post, and after a three from Brooke Coderre (Woonsocket, R.I.) and a layup from Kara Charette (Fairhaven, Mass.), Hurd tossed in a layup of her own, and the Ravens found themselves up 72-63 with 1:48 to go.

Hurd hit two more free throws a minute later to put Franklin Pierce back up by double-digits at 74-63, as they cruised in for the win from there.

She was 6-of-14 from the floor, but 5-for-6 from the free throw line, while also totaling five rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Coderre and Dyamond Gardner (Cambridge, Mass.) followed with 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Charette added 11.

Southern Connecticut mounted its furious rally late after Gardner bombed in a triple to stake the Ravens to what seemed to be a comfortable 59-44 lead with 10:30 remaining.

Keshia Primo, who poured in a game-high 25 points for the Owls, kick-started the run with a layup, and Taylor McLaughlin added to it with seven points (had 11 for the game). Jackie Beathea, who had 14 off the bench, capped the surge with a layup.

Franklin Pierce shot 46 percent from the floor, and 42 percent from three-point range, while SCSU struggled at 36 and 22 percent.

The one area where Southern Connecticut dominated was on the boards, as it held a 52-37 edge.

The Owls got to work on the glass early and built an 8-3 lead, but the Ravens fought back and the game went back and forth the remainder of the first half with the lead changing hands five times over a six-minute span.

The Ravens, though, finally started taking control late in the stanza, and scored the final nine points to go from being down one to up eight (32-24) at halftime. Gardner highlighted the rally with six of the nine points on a three, layup, and free throw, while Coderre added to it with a three ball of her own.

Franklin Pierce continued to push the pace in the early stages of the second half, and three more points from Hurd over a 40-second span staked the Ravens to a 37-26 lead. The Ravens continued to add to their advantage before SCSU’s late rally made things interesting.

Senior guard Brittany Martelle (Brookfield, Conn.) added nine points in the win, and is now just three points shy of 1,000 for her career. She will look to accomplish the career feat on Wednesday night, when the Ravens play host to Adelphi at 5:30 p.m. in The Fieldhouse in Rindge. Martelle would become just the 22^nd player in program history to reach the prestigious scoring plateau.

For more information on Franklin Pierce women’s basketball, please visit the team’s page at http://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 Franklin Pierce women’s basketball apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)