Women’s Basketball Puts Pressure On No. 2 Roxbury, Falls Late

ROXBURY, Mass. ---- Behind the hot shooting of Natascha Elias (Brockton), the Massasoit women's basketball team put a scare in No. 2 nationally ranked Roxbury. The Tigers responded with a strong second half to top the Warriors, 95-64.

Elias had quite the turnaround in her second go-around against the highly-talented Tigers. In the first meeting of the season, the freshman shooting guard was blanked in the scoring column. That all changed on Thursday night, as she came out of the gates on fire from downtown.

Elias buried six 3-pointers in the first quarter as Massasoit led 22-15 heading into the second. She finished with 21 in the first half, all on 3s, with the Warriors owning a 44-43 lead at the break.

"We fought hard for the whole game," head coach Taryn Johnson said. "Tascha's shooting carried us in the first half. She was on fire."

Clinging to the one-point lead, the game slowly slipped away in the third quarter from the Warriors. Taj Lewis scored 12 points in the period as the Tigers outscored Massasoit 26-7 in the frame.

"Tati (Dias) picked up her fourth foul in the third and we struggled without her," Johnson said. "Despite the loss, we showed we can play with one of the top teams in the country. We just need to sustain that strong level of play for all 40 minutes."

Elias led the Warriors with 27 points, featuring eight 3s. She was followed in the scoring department by Geornaisha Silva-Moore and Dias with 15 each.

Three Tigers posted 20-or-more points, led by Lewis' 28.