BOX SCORE SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The University of New Haven women's basketball team erased a 12-point second-half deficit to tie Dominican, 57-57, with 1:29 to play in Saturday’s season opener at the AIC Tip-Off Classic. However, New Haven would not score again until the game’s closing seconds in a 63-59 loss. Briana Bradford (Waterbury, Conn./Holy Cross) scored a game-high 15 points in her collegiate debut.
 
In addition to Bradford’s 15 points, the New Haven Chargers got double-figure scoring efforts from Anh-Dao Tran (Webster, Mass./Holy Name) and Lauren Hebert (North Reading, Mass./North Reading) (11) and Bria Moore (West Haven, Conn./Hill Regional Career) (10). The Dominican Chargers were led by 13 points from Lindsey Lopez and a double-double from Bianca Harris (12 points, 12 rebounds).
 
All seven New Haven players who took the court found the scoring column as Rykema Stone (Bronx, N.Y./Wings Academy) added five points with Ashley LeBlanc (Methuen, Mass./Methuen) contributing four tallies and Nikita Reddy (Germantown, Md./Germantown) adding three. As a unit, the Blue and Gold shot 18-for-60 (30 percent) from the floor, 3-for-18 (16.7 percent) from three-point range and 20-for-35 (57.1 percent) from the free throw line.
 
Tran filled out her statline with five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Moore hauled in a team-high seven boards as Dominican earned a 53-42 advantage on the glass. Hebert added six steals for a New Haven defense that forced 21 turnovers while committing 15.
 
Dominican, which also had four players scoring in double figures, shot 20-for-61 (32.8 percent) from the field, 4-for-19 (21.1 percent) from downtown and 19-for-27 (70.4 percent) from the charity stripe.
 
After Tran sank two free throws to open the scoring, Dominican netted the next nine points to open up a seven-point cushion through the first four minutes of action. New Haven cut the deficit to one point and trailed but just two, 16-14, when a 13-2 spurt over the ensuing 4:30 gave Dominican its largest lead of the contest at 29-15. The Blue and Gold chipped away at the margin to close the half and entered the intermission facing a 32-24 deficit.
 
Hebert scored six of her 11 points over the opening 20 minutes, while Lopez had a half-best nine tallies courtesy of three three-pointers.
 
Dominican maintained its double-digit lead to a 50-40 score with 8:53 remaining. But over the next minute, Bradford scored on a fast break and Stone followed her own miss for a lay-up and then converted two free throws to cut the cushion to four points at 50-46. The deficit grew back to seven points at 56-49, at which point a three-pointer by Hebert sparked an 8-1 New Haven run to storm all the way back and tie the game at 57-57 with 1:29 to play.
 
Following an empty trip each way, Dominican broke the deadlock with a pair of free throws by LaShonda Hathorne to grab a 59-57 lead with 23 seconds to go. New Haven was unable to score on its ensuing possession, and Dominican added two more from the strip with 15 ticks left to open up a two-possession lead. Bradford sank a layup in the closing seconds to cut the margin back to two at 61-59, but Dominican would add a pair of late free throws to ice a 63-59 decision.
 
Bradford netted 11 of her game-high scoring output in the second half, while Moore had seven points after the intermission.
 
New Haven is back in action tomorrow at the AIC Tip-Off Classic, wrapping up action from Springfield with a 3:30 contest against Felician. The Golden Falcons opened their season today with an 85-33 loss to the host Yellow Jackets. After beginning Northeast-10 play at Saint Rose on Wednesday, Nov. 14, the Chargers open the home slate on Sunday, Nov. 18 against Dowling at 2 p.m.