Springfield, Mass. - November 8, 2023 - The Springfield College women's basketball team opened up the 2023-24 campaign with a convincing 74-56 triumph over crosstown-rival Western New England on Wednesday night. 

Angela Czeremcha (West Springfield, Mass.) was tremendous in the victory as she paced Springfield with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting to go along with eight boards.  Rachel Vinton (Rutland, Mass.) added 19 points, five rebounds, and four assists of her own and  Jaélen Daubon (Hyde Park, N.Y.) netted 12 points.  Riley Robinson (Adams, Mass.) hauled in a game-high 10 boards as Springfield owned a 43-34 advantage on the glass.  The Pride finished the evening shooting 25-for-59 (42%) and turned 14 offensive rebounds into 21 second-chance points. 

Springfield raced out to a 9-2 lead over under three minutes into the game following a triple from Vinton, and maintained a seven-point edge at 11-4 when Czeremcha delivered a great feed to Daubon for an inside score at 4:58.  The hosts would answer with a 5-0 burst in under a minute of play to make it a one-score game, only to have Czeremcha respond with a pair of buckets of her own to push the lead back to 15-9 at 3:26.  The Golden Bears would score the final four points of the quarter to make it a 15-13 contest after 10 minutes of play. 

Vinton knocked down a pull up jumper at the 7:48 mark to give Springfield a 21-14 edge before Stefany Padula (Franklin, Mass.) drilled her first shot attempt of the season on a trifecta from the left wing with 6:31 remaining in the half to push the score to 26-18.  WNE would eventually call for a timeout after a Czeremcha putback with 4:15 on the clock allowed Springfield's lead to grow to 30-20.  Following another midrange jumper by Czeremcha with under a minute to play, the Pride would take a 34-20 cushion into halftime as they kept the hosts off the scoreboard for the final five-plus minutes of the quarter. 

Amanda Leary (Westbury, N.Y.) canned a corner triple at the 6:31 mark to make Springfield's lead balloon to 44-26 and Czeremcha stepped into a jumper with 4:43 on the clock to force WNE into a timeout trailing by a 50-28 margin.  After 30 minutes of play, Springfield owned a 58-37 lead. The hosts would get no closer than 16 points in the fourth quarter as Springfield prevailed by a 74-56 margin. 

Springfield hits the court again on Saturday when it travels to Maine to face Bowdoin in a 1 pm contest.  

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