COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's basketball team whittled a 10-point deficit to two in the late stages on Saturday against Stonehill College before coming up shy, 58-53, in a Northeast-10 Conference contest in the Ross Sports Center. The Purple Knights are 4-5 overall and 1-4 in the league, while the Skyhawks improved to 5-3 and 2-3. Saint Michael's suffered its third loss this week by nine points or less.

Senior Coreen Hennessy (Chatham, N.H./Fryeburg Academy) notched a game-high 18 points for the hosts, shooting 5-of-8 from the field and 6-of-7 on free throws. Junior Nicole Adach (Schenectady, N.Y./Mohonasen) added 15 points and seven rebounds, and sophomore Alexa Long (Waterford, Conn./Waterford) had nine boards.

Senior Tania Williams (South Setauket, N.Y./Ward-Melville) shot 6-of-7 en route to notching 12 points for Stonehill, and freshman Tori Faieta (Lynn, Mass./Saint Mary's) had nine off the bench. Sophomore Mary Louise Dixon (Wellesley, Mass./Wellesley) provided a well-rounded eight points, seven rebounds and five assists.

The visitors pushed their 33-31 halftime advantage to as many as 10 in the second stanza, grabbing a 47-37 advantage with 11:25 to go on sophomore Abbey Lalime's (Orleans, Vt./Lake Region Union) three-pointer. The Purple Knights still trailed by nine with 5:53 remaining before Adach went on a personal 8-1 run, hitting a fade-away jumper as the shot clock expired to bring her squad within 54-52 with 1:12 left. After Dixon hit a pair of freebies with 15.9 seconds left, Long made a free throw at 5.9 seconds to create a 56-53 margin before missing the second intentionally, but the hosts were unable to corral the rebound, and Dixon hit two more free throws to provide the final score.

Stonehill scored six of the game's first seven points before Hennessy's three-pointer at 14:23 of the opening half put the Purple Knights on top, 11-10. From there, the Skyhawks put together a 13-3 run, with freshman Amy Pelletier (Beverly, Mass./Bishop Fenwick) netting the final five to provide a 23-14 cushion at 7:58. However, senior Caitlin Quinn (Oakdale, Conn./Montville) knocked down a three to make it 24-22 at 5:15, and Hennessy's triple created a 28-27 score with 3:31 remaining. Saint Michael's trailed 33-31 at halftime.

The Purple Knights plays their final game until Jan. 3 when they host Merrimack College on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.