Emerson women’s basketball blew out winless Mount Holyoke College 87-31 on Saturday during the Lions’ senior day game.
This 56-point win over Mount Holyoke shows improvement over their 39-point win earlier in the season against the Lyons, head hoach Bill Gould said.
“I think our team is just a very good offensive team and they’re very unselfish,” Gould said. “Every team makes mistakes, but for the most part we played the game the right way.”
Emerson led 26-3 at the end of the first quarter after a 19-0 run for the first eight minutes of the game. The second quarter began with the two seniors working together when Maya Savino made a steal and passed to Eastin Ashby for a layup.
Mount Holyoke’s top scorer for the game, Raquel Fitzpatrick, only put up 11 points against a strong Emerson defense.
Ashby and Savino both made an impact during their senior day game. Ashby scored a season-high 17 points, and tied her season-high five steals. Savino scored five points and earned three assists.
Ashby, the steals record holder for the women’s basketball team, earned her 200th career steal during the third quarter.
“I was really set on getting the 200,” Ashby said. “It was really exciting and it was a great game. It was really fun and that was the best thing about it.”
Ashby and Savino took the court with their parents before the game to celebrate their careers at Emerson.
“[My parents are] honestly always here so it was just fun to have them come onto the court,” Savino said. “My mom loves stuff like this so it was exciting for her.”
Ashby said she also felt excited for her parents to attend the game.
“I was so happy I got to see them,” Ashby said. “I love my family more than anything so anytime they get to come to Boston, it’s great.”
While the contest ended with Emerson far ahead of Mount Holyoke, the game was still important, Savino said.
“We wanted this game to be a ‘prepare for playoffs’ game so we went through plays, made sure we were executing, [went] through all of our offenses and all of our defenses,” Savino said. “It helped us execute for upcoming games.”
Emerson is still battling against Coast Guard Academy and Wellesley College for the final two playoff spots, but with this win they hold a commanding position. Coast Guard (6-8) defeated Wellesley (5-9) 47-43 on Saturday.
Emerson (8-8) will try to use its momentum in its next conference game against Wheaton College (2-12) on Feb. 14. Tip off is at 5:30 p.m.
