NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Senior Heather LeBlanc (Sanford, Maine) posted her eighth double-double of the season to propel the Norwich University women's basketball team to a 49-40 victory over Lasell College on Saturday. 

The Cadets improve to 12-7 on the season and to 7-4 within the Great Northeast Athletic Conference. Lasell dips to 5-13 overall, losing its ninth league showdown in 11 chances. 

LeBlanc, appearing in her 100th-career game, shot 10-for-15 from the floor, hauling in 12 rebounds to go along with 21 points. Junior Arianna Harrison (Vernon, Vt.) pulled down 10 of her team's 47 rebounds, scoring six points and handing out five assists. Senior Leanne Winans (Hudson, N.H.) just missed a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds. 

Norwich opened up a four-point lead only 1:11 into the contest, but the Lasers countered with a three-point basket from Morgan Church to take a 11-9 lead with 3:39 to go in the first quarter. Lasell carried that momentum into the second quarter where they outscored the Cadets 14-7, taking a 25-23 lead into halftime. 

The Cadets out-rebounded Lasell by a wide margin in the first 20 minutes of action (26-to-14), but the Lasers bombed seven three-point baskets to take the lead at halftime. Norwich also held a distinct advantage at points in the paint (16-to-0), but allowed Lasell to score five points off of Cadets miscues. 

Liz Bougie poured home a three-point basket, lifting Lasell to a five-point lead only 32 seconds into the second half. LeBlanc would start a Norwich rally with a three-point basket, only the fourth of her career, to cut the visitors advantage to two points, 28-26. That shot would spark a nine-point run for the Cadets, who took a 32-28 lead before a Lasell timeout. 

With the score tied at 28, sophomore Naomi Rinaldo (Middlefield, Conn.) provided quite the spark off the bench for the Cadets. In limited action, she put back a nice layup in the paint off of a LeBlanc feed and would later force a steal that led to a Norwich layup that created a 32-28 lead with 2:47 to go. 

Following a brief Lasell rally that tied the game at 34, junior Shyann Josler (Thetford Center, Vt.) would put her team up by a one point margin with a free throw make with less than one second left on the scoreboard. 

Lasell would re-establish a slim lead, 38-37, by making back-to-back baskets with just over one minute expired in the fourth quarter. A Harrison layup in the paint after rebounding her own miss put her team up to good and LeBlanc would score four-straight points down the stretch, creating a 45-40 lead with 3:53 left on the clock. 

LeBlanc would add four more points, ultimately stringing together eight-straight points to close out the game for Norwich. She would conclude the day with 1,305 career points and over 3,000 career minutes played, finishing with exactly 3,018 played since debuting as a freshman in 2013. 

Bougie and Church finished with 12 points while the latter reeled in eight rebounds. Lasell, who played with only six players in the tilt, had four players play all 40 minutes of the contest – the squad finished by hitting nine of 29 shots from beyond the arc while the Cadets wrapped up the game by making only two shots from distance. 

Norwich will hit the road for three-straight games, taking on Emmanuel (Mass.) on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. in a crucial GNAC showdown.