By Zach Perbeck

NEW LONDON, Conn. - Thanks to a 23-point fourth quarter, the Connecticut College women's basketball team defeated Westfield State in comeback fashion by a score of 66-60 on Tuesday night. After trailing 51-43 heading into the last quarter of play, the Camels held their opponents to just nine points in the final period en route to a come-from-behind victory.
 
The first half of play was up and down for the Camels, as shooting woes from deep prevented them from making up ground on the visitors, who themselves threw up 20 shots from deep in the first half. While the Camels held the advantage in made field goals at halftime, they still found themselves trailing their opponent by a score of 32-26. The Owls shot 7-of-20 from beyond the arc as opposed to the Camels, who went 0-of-11 from deep in the first 20 minutes.
 
Despite the problems shooting from three-point range, Connecticut College remained in striking distance thanks to spectacular mid-range and inside play from sophomore Rebecca Oberman-Levine (Hamden, Conn.) and senior Jenna Whelan (Bernardsville, N.J.) who each contributed eight first-half points while combining for 10 rebounds. 
 
The third quarter saw a change in fortune for the Camels as they began to hit shots all around the court, despite still struggling from behind the three-point line. Junior Molly Cronin (Wellesley, Mass.) was the only Camel to make a three-pointer on the day, but she made all four of her shots from deep to contribute to her team-high 14 points, all of which came in the second half.
 
 A key three-pointer from Cronin helped bring the Camels within three with just under six minutes remaining in the third quarter, but a 7-0 scoring run for Westfield State regained both the momentum and a steady grasp of the lead. The remainder of the quarter remained relatively even, with Connecticut College slowly but steadily gaining ground and seemingly poised to make a scoring run at any given moment.
 
As the fourth quarter commenced, the Camels found themselves trailing by eight points with just 10 minutes of play remaining. Four straight scores, two of which resulted from Westfield State turnovers, allowed the Camels to tie the game up with seven minutes remaining.
 
After three minutes of back-and-forth play, with each team struggling to pull ahead of the other by more than a point, a layup by freshman Catie Donadio (Clinton, Conn.) put the Camels up by a score of 56-53 and would help Connecticut College separate from their opponents for good. Another three from Cronin just 30 seconds later would put the Camels up by six, and despite five late points from Westfield State's Melissa Gray, the visitors were unable to close the gap and fell by a score of 66-60.
 
Gray was the leading scorer for Westfield State (2-7) with a game-high 25 points to go along with six rebounds. Olivia Hadla also contributed 10 points for the Owls with six rebounds of her own. For the Camels, Cronin led the team with 14 points, while Oberman-Levine added 10 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks. 
 
The Camels bested Westfield State in field goal percentage, shooting 39.4 percent compared to just 31.9 percent for the Owls. Shooting from deep was a different story, with Westfield State making 24.3 percent of their three-point attempts compared to 19 percent for Connecticut College. Neither team shot well from the free-throw line, with Connecticut College making 50 percent of their attempts while the visitors converted at a 38.5 percent rate. The Camels narrowly outrebounded their opponent by a total of 52-48 and led in assists by a tally of 10-6. Neither team took care of the ball particularly well, as the Owls turned it over 24 times compared to 22 for the Camels. 
 
Connecticut College (2-6) will play host again tomorrow, Wednesday December 8th, as they tip-off against Babson at 6:00 p.m. in New London.