Simmons Basketball captured their 2009-10 season opener at Gordon Tuesday evening, 65-53. The Sharks advance to 1-0 on the season, while Gordon drops to 0-1 with the loss.

The senior forwards on both teams waged a strong battle, as Simmons senior Stephanie Fox (West Springfield, Mass.) led all scorers with 17 points, while her counterpart, Gordon's Rebecca Carroll, had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Simmons shot 48% in the early going, outpacing Gordon's 18% effort. The Sharks ran out to an early 7-0 lead and took a 34-21 advantage into the break, paced by 9 first half points from Fox. The Fighting Scots got a boost off the bench from freshman guard Emily Armstrong as she drained two 3-pointers in the first half of her inaugural collegiate game.

Gordon fought back in the second half and closed to within 4 at 53-49 on another 3-pointer by Armstrong with 3:32 to play. However, the Sharks answered back with some work from Fox, and Gordon failed to threaten seriously the rest of the way.

Simmons freshmen Emily Thomas (Cheshire, Conn.) and Liz O'Connor (Milton, Mass.) also ended the evening in double figures, finishing with 14 and 13, respectively, in their collegiate debut.

Simmons shot 39% for the game compared to the Scots' final total of 25%, in addition to holding a 53-44 rebounding advantage.

Simmons presses on in the early season competition with the Elms College Tip-Off, facing MCLA at 8:00pm on Friday, November 20.