COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's basketball team opened the season with an 83-57 victory against Bloomfield College on Friday in the Ross Sports Center during the opening game of its own Best Western Windjammer Tip-Off Classic. In the late game, Southern New Hampshire University downed Post University, 70-58.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (1-0), Bloomfield (0-1)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Senior Brianna Furch (Los Angeles, Calif./Brentwood School/Cal State Fullerton), 20 points (career high), 8-for-17 field goals, 3-for-7 three-pointers
• Sophomore Ruby Santos (New Paltz, N.Y./Kent School), 12 points, 3-for-3 field goals, 6-for-6 free throws
• Sophomore Bella Franchi (Colonie, N.Y./Colonie Central), 10 points, 6 assists, 3 blocks, 4-for-8 field goals, 2-for-3 three-pointers
• Sophomore Jayla Tyler (Albany, N.Y./Colonie Central/Saint Rose), 9 points, 16 rebounds, 7 offensive rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks, 4-for-4 field goals
• Senior Makayla Blake (Colonie, N.Y./Colonie Central), 8 points, 14 rebounds, 4 offensive rebounds, 4 assists, 4-for-6 field goals
• Senior Molly Brophy (Greenwich, N.Y./Greenwich Central School), 8 points, 5 assists, 2 steals

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Senior Taneshia Tucker, 22 points, 8-for-17 field goals, 5-for-6 three-pointers
• Junior Anisha Able, 12 points, 4 steals

GAME FACTS

• Saint Michael's improved to 2-1 in the all-time series.
• The Purple Knights converted 26 assists on 31 baskets and held a 54-26 rebounding lead. The hosts also had comfortable advantages in paint points (44-20) and fastbreak scoring (15-4).

THE ACTION

• First-year Cianni Thompson's three-pointer at 2:45 of the opening quarter gave her team a 16-13 lead before the Purple Knights scored the next seven points, as sophomore Amber Furch's (Los Angeles, Calif./Brentwood School) pair of free throws made it 20-16 at 1:15.
• Tucker finished the quarter on a personal 7-1 run, sparking a 12-1 stretch that carried over into the second stanza. The Bears led 28-21 on Able's lay-in at 8:09.
• Franchi canned back-to-back threes to trim the deficit to one before Tucker countered with consecutive triples of her own, and Able's jumper with 4:31 left capped an 8-0 run that produced a 36-27 margin.
• Saint Michael's ended the half on a 10-3 run, with first-year Margaret Montplaisir's (Portsmouth, N.H./Portsmouth) first career basket, a three-pointer, cutting the deficit to 39-37 with 33 seconds to go. The score stood at intermission.
• Bloomfield led by as much as 49-44 in the third period, on senior Kamrin Babbs' jumper with 5:46 to go.
• Santos' two free throws at 2:48 finished off a go-ahead 9-2 run before Able converted a tying lay-up at 1:23.
• Saint Michael's responded with a 30-2 run that took 9:38 to elapse. Seven Purple Knights scored, while the hosts held Bloomfield to 0-for-18 shooting. Brianna Furch led the way with nine points, while Blake and Santos both had six. First-years Kelli Cieplicki (Colchester, Vt./Rice Memorial) and Hannah Polumbo (Milton, N.Y./Marlboro) added their first college points in the stretch.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Saturday vs. Post at Best Western Windjammer Tip-Off Classic, 7 p.m.
• The Eagles received votes toward the D2CSC East Region preseason poll.