WORCESTER, Mass. – Michelle DeRoma (West Roxbury, Mass.) poured in a career-high 21 points to lead Southern New Hampshire University to a 77-54 Northeast-10 women's basketball victory over No. 15 Assumption College Saturday afternoon at Laska Gymnasium.  The Penmen won their third straight to improve to 12-3 overall and 7-2 in the NE-10, while the Greyhounds dropped their second straight and are now 10-3 and 7-2 in the league.

With the win, SNHU moved into a tie with Assumption for second place in the NE-10, one game behind league-leading Bentley, which suffered its first NE-10 loss of the season at Pace Saturday.

DeRoma finished 9-12 from the floor and 3-5 behind the arc to match her career-high set earlier this season against NYIT.  Christine Duffy (South Boston, Mass.) totaled nine points and a career-high 13 assists, while Sloane Sorrell (Berwick, Maine) had 11 points and a career-best 13 rebounds.  Lorreta Rocha (Espargos, Cape Verde) added 10 points off the bench for the Penmen.

Kelly Meredith, the Northeast-10's leading scorer, paced Assumption with 34 points, going 12-18 from the floor and 10-17 at the free throw line.  Julia Frankian added nine points for the Greyhounds.

Southern New Hampshire, which trailed just twice at 2-0 and 4-3, led 32-22 at halftime and extended its lead to 43-27 four minutes into the second-half following a layup by Megan Smith (Smithfield, Maine).  Assumption used a 7-0 run to make it 43-34 with 14:14 left on a Meredith basket, but the Penmen countered with a 5-0 spurt and Rocha's layup with 13:19 left made it 48-34. 

Assumption cut the lead to nine again with 10:19 left on a pair of free throws by Meredith, but that would be as close as the hosts would get as SNHU scored the game's next six points and closed the game on an 8-0 run.

The Penmen took control with an early 10-1 run to build a 17-7 lead with 12:32 to go before halftime on a basket by Sorrell.  The Greyhounds scored the game's next seven points to make it 17-14 on a Gabrielle Gibson basket at the 11:13 mark, but SNHU countered with a 10-2 spurt to go up 27-16 on a layup by DeRoma with 3:47 left.  The guests took a 32-22 lead into the locker room.

SNHU shot 63% (17-27) over the final 20 minutes and 54.2% for the game, including knocking down four of its 10 three-point attempts.  The Greyhounds, who shot 44.2% for the contest, took 10 more trips to the free throw line and were 12-27, while the Penmen were 9-17 at the stripe.  Southern New Hampshire outrebounded Assumption 39-27, including an 11-6 offensive rebounding advantage that led to a 17-5 SNHU edge in second chance points.

Southern New  Hampshire returns to action Wednesday night when it travels to Saint Rose for a 5:30 Northeast-10 contest.