NEW LONDON, N.H. - The Norwich University women's basketball team led wire-to-wire en route to securing their second-consecutive Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) victory of the season, defeating Colby-Sawyer College, 84-40, in the David L. Coffin Fieldhouse on Wednesday evening.

Four Cadets crossed into double-digit territory, with Maren McGinn (Georgia, Vt.) leading all scorers with 23 points on 11-16 shooting, completing a dominant double-double with 10 caroms in just 20 minutes of action.  Haley Brewster (Virginia Beach, Va.) knocked down three treys to finish with 19 points, while Siobhan O'Donnell (Queens, N.Y.) snagged four steals to go with 15 points.  Sage MacAuley (Barre, Vt.) added 11 points off the bench.

Norwich hit the gas early and never looked back, embarking on a quick 6-0 spurt behind baskets from McGinn and Kiley O'Brien (Kingston, Mass.) before the Chargers got on the board three minutes into the affair.  The Cadets quickly rattled off another run, this time a 7-0 rally to build an 11-point lead.  McGinn capped off Norwich's impressive first frame with seconds remaining, scooping up a layup off a Jessica Zimmerman (Turner, Maine) feed to give the Cadets a 12-point edge.

After an early challenge by Colby-Sawyer kept the hosts within 10 halfway through the second stanza, Norwich nearly doubled its lead to close the half, rattling off a 12-1 run with six-straight points by O'Donnell.  Brewster concluded the stanza with a jumper to give the Cadets their largest lead of the half at 23, 39-16.

A two-and-a-half-minute-long deadlock was broken by an O'Donnell freebie to ignite a 27-point third quarter for the Cadets, as their lead grew to 40 in the closing seconds on two O'Brien shots at the foul line.  The fourth quarter saw Norwich claim its largest lead of the night, as MacAuley and Paige Dwinell (Graniteville, Vt.) gave the Cadets a pair of 53-point advantages on two occasions before the Chargers ended the game on a short run to whittle Norwich's dominant lead down to 44.

The Cadets feasted in numerous categories, particularly seizing opportunities in points off turnovers (28-3) on 26 Colby-Sawyer miscues, as well as an authoritative 46-8 edge in points in the paint.  Norwich also enjoyed leads in fast break points (19-7), bench points (20-18), and second-chance points (12-4), while also controlling the battle on the boards, 50-31.

Norwich's offense was firing on all cylinders on a 42.9% clip on field goals with a 78.9% mark from the charity stripe, all the while restricting the Chargers to 21.6% and 18.8% tallies from the floor and beyond the arc, respectively.

Brewster's 15 points give her 1,547 points for her career, now 15 points shy of moving past Lisa Trujillo '94 (1,561) for second on the program's all-time scoring list.  Aliah Curry '15 currently ranks first in the program's record book behind 2,267 career points, which also sits second in the history of Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) women's basketball history.

The Cadets will return home to kick off the month of February, hosting Albertus Magnus College at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1.  Curry is currently an assistant for the Falcons, and was recently recognized by Rivier University during this past Saturday's women's basketball contest between the Raiders and Falcons as one of the top three leading scorers in the history of the conference, alongside Rivier's Lyric Grumblatt '25 and Deanna Purcell '15.  After hosting Albertus Magnus, Norwich will hit the road for a crucial GNAC tilt at Elms College on Tuesday, Feb. 4.