Purple Eagles silence Thundering Herd

Niagara U.

December 22, 2006

By Pat Murray The Niagara Gazette Fri Dec 22, 2006, 12:18 AM EST

LEWISTON — Sorry, Mr. Grinch, but the Niagara University women’s basketball team doesn’t want you around this year.

The Purple Eagles head into Christmas on a high note thanks to Thursday’s 80-70 non-conference win over the Marshall Thundering Herd at the Gallagher Center.

“Christmas dinner will taste a lot better this year,” said Niagara guard Michelle Manfredi, who had career highs of 14 rebounds and eight assists. “We won’t have to think about how many wind sprints we’ll be running the next day.”

The Purple Eagles (8-4) enter the holiday on a two-game win streak, a far cry from last year’s 4-25 campaign when they carried a six-game losing streak into Christmas.

“Christmas will be a lot merrier this year,” Niagara coach Bill Agronin said. “I’m so proud of these players.”

Shaunna Ambrose led the Niagara offense with a career-high 34 points. She scored 23 of those in the second half when the Purple Eagles outscored Marshall 54-39.

“I felt good today,” Ambrose said. “A lot better than (Wednesday) when I couldn’t do anything in practice.”

The Purple Eagles won despite being outrebounded 46-28 by a much taller Marshall squad. A big reason for that was Niagara’s performance from 3-point range, as Niagara went 13-of-32 from beyond the arc. Ambrose had six treys, Chantelle Wilson hit four 3-pointers and Jennifer McNamee had a trio of 3-pointers.

“”We had a number of people step up today,” Ambrose said. “We don’t have to look to just one player to lead us.”

Wilson finished with 16 points for NU, Sara Prybyl had 10 points and McNamee ended up with nine points.

Alyssa Hammond led Marshall (7-5) with 23 points. Modupe Ishola had 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Herd, who are members of Conference USA.

Niagara is idle until Dec. 29 when it travels to Akron for its final non-conference game of the season. The Purple Eagles resume Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play Jan. 6 at Saint Peter’s.

“This will give us a big dose of confidence,” Manfredi said. “We feel we can play with anybody.”

Contact Pat Murray at 282-2311, Ext. 2258.

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