BOSTON, Mass. – The Emmanuel College women's basketball team downed Skidmore College, 56-48, Saturday afternoon in non-conference action at the Jean Yawkey Center Gymnasium. The Saints improve to 3-2 on the year while the loss drops Skidmore to 3-2.

The Thoroughbreds jumped out to an early 7-0 lead following a free throw by senior guard Amber Holgate (Easton, Mass.) but the Saints responded with a 16-0 run over the next 10 minutes of play to take control of the action for good fueled by six points from senior forward Sarah Higgins (Groveland, Mass.). A pair of free throws by freshman center Mary McCarthy (Scituate, Mass.) put the Saints up for good late in the first quarter as the hosts led 8-7 at the first break.

Skidmore freshman forward Minja Ranisavljevic (Belgrade, Serbia) stopped the 16-0 run with a pair of free-throws with just under seven minutes to play in the half to cut the lead to 16-9 and on the next possession, Holgate drained a three to pull the visitors to four at 16-12 but it would be the closest they would come the rest of the action. The Saints mounted a 13-0 run during the middle action of the quarter to pull ahead 29-12 before Holgate closed the half with two free throws and a jumper to account for a 29-16 halftime score.

A strong defensive effort in the third quarter opened up the game for the hosts, holding Skidmore to just nine points in the period. Emmanuel freshman guard Madison McLaughlin (Westerly, R.I.) drained a deep three from the top of the key with 1:31 to play in the third to put EC ahead 45-23 for their largest lead of the action.

The Thoroughbreds made some noise in the final period, outscoring Emmanuel 23-11 in the quarter but it was not enough to come-from-behind as the Saints held on for the 56-48 win.

Skidmore sophomore guard Kelly Donnelly (Wynantskill, N.Y.) led all scorers with 17 points and collected a game-high 17 rebounds for the double-double. Holgate chipped in with 11 points off the bench.

Higgins paced the Saints with a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds while McCarthy scored a season-high 11 points in the win.

"We played this week's game knowing we will have weeks like this in January and February where we play a game on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday," said Skidmore coach Darren Bennett. "The competition will be just as tough then as it was this week. To walk away with a 2-1 week is good for our team. By no means is losing the way we want to learn but we progressed in today's game, we learned and we never stopped playing.
In today's game when we were down by 19 or 20 points we could have packed it up and tapped out but we didn't and I'm proud of our team for that. They played until the end like an experienced team and created a situation where we could get some good shots and win.

"This team has a great week to grow and progress and they passed the test. We certainly have areas to improve at and have some things that we definitely have to straighten out but overall I like what I saw and I'm really excited for the players and the team.  This is going to be a really fun and successful season if we continue to grow and maintain our focus."