MCC Starts 2011 with Road Win in Worcester

WORCESTER, MA – Callie Tambling (Manchester) led all scorers with 18 points and Ericka Sagay (Bloomfield) pulled down 20 rebounds as Manchester CC (12-1) beat host Quinsigamond CC 66-44 Tuesday night.

Shenielle Duncan-Clarke (Bloomfield) had 11 points and eight assists while Jazlynn Canino (East Hartford) had eight points, 10 rebounds and five blocks for the Cougars.

Krystal Rodriguez paced the Wyverns (13-3) with 14 points.

MCC took a 29-19 halftime lead after trailing by four points in the game’s infancy. The Cougars tied the game at 15-all at the 10:10 mark before taking the lead for good moments later. The seven Manchester players rotated throughout the game and were able to build a solid 21 point lead with an 11-2 run to open the second half.

“Callie got hot and we executed a little better,” head coach Robert Turner Jr. said while comparing the second 20 minutes to the first. “I think we shook off the rust – we hadn’t played a game in two weeks.”

Tambling, who notched her 100th three-point basket as a Cougar at Bunker Hill on December 11th, added three more to her collection and had four steals while playing 35 minutes.

Sagay’s rebounding certainly clearly made a difference, allowing Manchester to sweep the season series between the two teams. MCC won the first meeting by a 75-47 count at Great Path on December 2nd.

“She was intimidating defensively,” Turner said of Sagay. “She really affected a lot of their inside shots. Some of their better players on the inside couldn’t do as well as they wanted to.”

Sophomore Rebeca VanGuilder (Hartford) came off the bench and provided some offensive spark with eight points, including a swisher from three-point range.

“Ruby is an excellent shooter and gave us a big lift today,” Turner said of VanGuilder.

The Cougars return home to host Navy Prep on Thursday evening at 6PM at the Great Path Academy gym.