LOCAL COLLEGE NOTES

Camel highlights

• The Connecticut College women’s hockey team will close the regular season with an important weekend series at Hamilton College. Results will affect seeding in the upcoming New England Small College Athletic Conference tournament. The Camels (14-4-4, 9-2-3) are in second and Hamilton (12-7-3, 8-4-2) is fourth. • It was a busy week for men’s hockey goalie Connor

Rodericks last week. Rodericks made 80 saves in two games, including a career-best 50 stops in a 2-2 overtime tie with Hamilton on Saturday. Conn (9-10-3, 8-5-3) is jockeying for seeding position in the upcoming NESCAC tourney, sitting in third place with two regular-season games remaining. • The women’s basketball team qualified for the NESCAC tournament as the No. 6 seed, visiting No. 3 Tufts (21-3, 8-2) on Saturday. The Camels (15-8, 4-6) lost the regular season meeting 75-54 on Jan. 26. Senior Mairead Hynes averaged 14.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in three games last week. Conn will finish with a winning overall record for the fifth straight season. • It was a tough season for the men’s basketball team, but the future looks bright. The Camels (6-17, 0-10) return 14 players, including leading scorers David Labossiere (17.8 points), Dan Draffan (14.1) and Phil Leotsakoas (8.0). Labossiere finished strong, averaging 24 points in the last four games.

Mariners riding a wave

• Mitchell College junior Domenico Santiago earned New England Collegiate Conference player of the week honors for the third time this season after averaging 24.5 points, 15.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals in two league games. He leads the team in scoring (18.8 ppg.) and rebounding (10.9) while ranking second in the nation in field goal percentage at 72.7. The Mariners (12-11, 8-4) are fighting for one of the two first-round byes in the NECC tournament, which opens next week. They are tied for second place with Dean College (14-9, 8-4) while Becker College (12-11, 7-5) and Lesley University (12-11, 7-5) also are still in the hunt. They close the regular season by hosting Lesley on Wednesday and visiting Becker on Saturday. They lost the first meeting against the former and beat the latter earlier this season.

• A four-game winning streak has kept the women’s basketball team in contention for a first-round bye in next week’s NECC tournament. Entering the final week of the regular season, the Mariners (12-11, 11-3) are in third place, just behind Dean (14-8, 11-2). The two teams meet at Dean on Tuesday. Mitchell won the first meeting 66-57.

Tracking the Bears

• The Coast Guard Academy women’s basketball team can secure a spot in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference tournament with a win over Clark on Wednesday or loss by Wellesley. The Bears are 12-11 overall, 6-8 in the conference.

• Senior Rachel Burchill, junior Anita Green and junior

Colton Atkinson made the Division III USTFCCCA cross country all-academic team. Green is the first CGA athlete in program history to earn that distinction twice. To qualify, student-athletes need to have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.30 and finish in the top 25 percent in the regional championship meet.

Around the region

• UConn junior Katie Lou Samuelson was named to the American Athletic Conference weekly honor roll after averaging 20.5 points in two victories last week.

• Nichols College guard DeAnte Bruton, a sophomore from New London, has scored in double figures in four straight games, ranking second on the team overall in scoring at 17.1 points. The former Ledyard standout also grabs 5.1 rebounds per game. With two regular-season games remaining, Nichols (20-3, 14-2) resides in first place in the Commonwealth Coast Conference.

• Former New London girls’ basketball teammates had a reunion on Feb. 3 when India Pagan's Stony Brook visited

Jada Lucas' Hartford Hawks. Pagan, a freshman forward, came off the bench to contribute six points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes in a 66-58 victory. Lucas, a freshman guard, didn’t play, but recently scored a season-best five points against New Hampshire on Jan. 31.

• The Eastern Connecticut State University men’s basketball team is closing in on clinching at least a share of the program’s fifth straight Little East Conference regular season title. Donny Craig, a junior from Waterford, is a key reserve for the 10th-ranked Warriors (20-3, 14-2), averaging 3.5 points and 2.4 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game.

• New London graduate Collin Sawyer recently scored 14 points in consecutive games for the Brandeis men’s basketball team. A sophomore guard, he raised his scoring average to 9.7 points per game.

• Central Connecticut sophomore Megan Brawner, a former Ledyard standout, ran a personal best time of two minutes, 27.11 seconds, in the 800 meters at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational Friday at Boston University. Her previous best was 2:17.83.

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