BRISTOL, R.I. — Roger Williams University closed the last three minutes with an 11-4 run to pick up a 58-51 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) women’s basketball victory over the University of New England on Thursday evening (Jan. 5) at the Campus Rec Center.

Play had been knotted at 47-all for a couple minutes before Bridget Quilty made a pair of free throws to give the Hawks (7-4, 5-0 CCC) the final lead. Quilty went to the line two more times in the ensuing 65 seconds, hitting all four tries to put the hosts up, 53-48.

The Nor’easters (6-5, 3-2 CCC) received a trey from Sadie Nelson (Windham, Maine) with 40 seconds remaining to get within 54-51. But RWU’s Anna Walther answered with a triple at the 0:12 mark — just the second for the Hawks in the contest — to all but seal the result.

Walther paced Roger Williams with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Quilty had a double-double of 17 points, 11 rebounds, and seven blocks. Mariah Nicholas added 10 points off the bench. Rebecca Ritchie notched seven assists and five steals.

For UNE, Alicia Brown (Greenland, N.H.) registered a season-best 21 points to go with eight rebounds. Nelson contributed all of her nine points following the break, and Lindsey Howland (New Braintree, Mass.) totaled seven. Sam MacDonald (Lebanon, N.H.) pulled down a team-high nine boards for the visitors, who out-rebounded their opponent by a 39-35 margin.

On her own, Brown had the Nor’easters in front, 10-8, just past the midway point of the 1st quarter. The Hawks, though, led by two (14-12) entering the 2nd, and extended the advantage to six (31-25) by halftime behind nine points from Walther. The home side out-shot their foes by a 45.2%-26.7% clip during the opening 20 minutes.

UNE doubled-up RWU (12-6) in the 3rd to draw even at 37-all — Brown posted the first six points of the frame. The scoreboard was level again at 39-39 and 41-41 early in the 4th, however the visiting squad was never able to gain an edge.

Over the last 20 minutes, the Hawks shot just 28 percent from the floor, but went 12-of-16 at th charity stripe (all in the 4th). While the Nor’easters displayed better live-action accuracy (39.3 percent), they converted only 2-of-8 free throws down the stretch.