Massasoit Bows Out In Regional Semifinals To No. 1 Roxbury, 80-54

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ---- The Massasoit women's basketball team struggled shooting the basketball on Saturday afternoon, falling to top seed and NJCAA's No. 1 ranked Roxbury Tigers, 80-54, in the Region XXI Tournament Semifinals at Springfield Tech.

Massasoit (9-15) shot just 29.9 percent (20-of-67) from the floor, including 3-of-28 (10.7 percent) from 3-point range.

"Our girls really played hard today," Massasoit head coach Taryn Johnson said. "We just struggled struggled shooting from the perimeter and you can't do that against a team as good as Roxbury. We had a lot of good looks, but we didn't knock them down. We came out slow in the first quarter, but never gave up. I'm really proud of the effort the girls put in both today and all season long."

The Warriors fell behind Roxbury (21-2), 23-8, after one quarter of action, but played even with the Tigers -- 17-17 -- in the second to bring the halftime score to 40-25.

Roxbury opening the second half on an 11-0 run to put any hope of a comeback out of reach for the fourth-seeded Warriors.

Tatiana Dias (Brockton) led Massasoit with 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting, to go along with six rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Geornaisha Silva-Moore (Brockton) finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Cynthia Laing (Boston) chipped in with eight points and seven boards in the loss.

The Tigers received 24 points from Alyssa Stewart and 20 from Taj Lewis. Late in the fourth quarter, Stewart scored her 1,000th career point at Roxbury, joining Lewis who also accomplished the milestone earlier in the season.

Roxbury advances to the Region XXI Finals to face the winner of Gateway CC and UConn Avery Point on Sunday at 1 p.m.