Frankian Paces Women's Basketball In Season Opening Setback To WPI

Worcester, MA ---  WPI senior teammates Dani Davis (East Granby, CT) and Rachel Pineda (Shrewsbury, MA) reached double-digits in scoring as the Engineers opened their season with a hard-earned 55-48 victory over visiting Worcester State in a Worcester City Women's Basketball Tournament contest Saturday evening in Harrington Auditorium.

WPI (1-0) advances to the City Tournament finals for fifth straight year and will meet the Clark at 3 PM on Sunday.  Worcester State (0-1) takes on Becker in the 1 PM showdown at Harrington.

After Worcester State used 12-3 spurt to cut a 13-point deficit to four points at 45-41 on a junior Bianca Langford (Worcester, MA/Holy Name) basket in the paint with just under six minutes remaining, Pineda tossed in a layup to stop the rally. 

Worcester State chipped away again late and was back to within three points late when WPI freshman Ama Biney (Worcester, MA/Holy Name) grabbed a long rebound of a missed 3-pointer that would have tied the game for WSU and took it the length of the floor and laid it in to push the WPI advantage edge back to five at 53-48 with 1:09 left.  Biney then drew an offensive foul on the ensuing possession and Pineda canned two free throws with 41 seconds left to secure the win. 

The first half featured strong defense and four lead changes and three ties.  Worcester State was poised to take a 22-20 advantage into the locker room at the break following a pair of free throws by senior Cheyenne Jennings (Worcester, MA/Wachusett), but sophomore Tess Nogueira's (Merrimac, MA) offensive rebound and subsequent layup beat the buzzer and forced a 22-22 halftime deadlock.

After senior Julie Frankian (Millbury, MA) scored the opening four points of the second stanza, the Engineers rattled off the next 17 points to transform a 26-22 deficit into a 39-26 bulge with 12:31 left on the clock.  Davis spearheaded the run with seven points while Biney added a pair of layups.

Davis and came off the bench to score 17 and 11 points respectively and freshman Maura Buckley (Melrose, MA) and Biney chipped in with eight and six each to led a WPI effort that saw it outscore its Worcester State reserve counterparts by an impressive 42-11 margin.  Nogueira grabbed a team-best eight rebounds to go along with four points.

Frankian paced all players with 20 points for the Lancers, including a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line and a pair of 3-pointers.  Langford flirted with a double-double, ending with eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds while freshman Nani Perez (Worcester, MA/Holy Name) doled out three assists and senior Kiesha Jones (Worcester, MA/Doherty) swiped four balls.

Full Release Courtesy of WPI Sports Information