NEWTON, Mass.—The Norwich University women's basketball team dropped a 69-61 decision to the Lasers of Lasell College on Wednesday evening in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action (GNAC).

With the loss, the Cadets fall to 13-11 overall and 4-6 in GNAC play, while the win boosts the Lasers to 12-12 overall and 5-5 in league action.

Junior Kelsey Lotti (South Yarmouth, Mass.) led the Cadets with a team-best 24 points, 15 of which she scored in the second half. Lotti shot 7-17 from the floor including a season-best six three-pointers.

As a team, the Cadets hit 11 baskets from behind the arc, as junior Aliah Curry (Windsor, Mass.) scored 12 of her 20 points from three-point range and senior Erin Clark (Newbury, Vt.) added a shot from long-range.

Lasell was led by Molly Lauver with 24 points. Katie Stopera chipped in with 17 points, while Danielle Autencio was a point shy of a double-double, scoring nine points while totaling a game-high 10 rebounds.

The opening minutes of the first half were closely contested, as both teams exchanged baskets, and the lead, for the first seven minutes. The Cadets would open a five-point lead at 15-10 following Clark's three-point shot at 12:33, but the Lasers would need just 1:59 to score six straight points to reclaim the lead, 16-15, at 10:34.

Neither team would lead by more than three points for remainder of the half and the lead would change hands two more times in the final nine minutes. The Lasers held the advantage at halftime as Stopera broke up a 35-35 tie by hitting a layup with 30 seconds left in the half.

Lasell would open the second half with a three-point basket by Stopera to take a five-point lead, but Norwich raced back with a three by Lotti and a layup by Clark to tie the score at 40-40. After almost three minutes of scoreless play, the Cadets took the lead on a layup by Hannah Curler (North Ferrisburgh, Vt.), but the advantage was short-lived as Lauver hit a three-pointer on Lasell's next trip down the floor.

The triple would mark the final lead change of the game, as the Lasers scored the next five points and fought off the Cadets each time they came close in the ensuing minutes. With 9:03 remaining Curry hit a jump shot to bring Norwich within one, 47-46, but Lasell scored back-to-back layups to squash the comeback.

A pair of free-throws by Lotti with 2:01 on the clock set the score at 59-57 in favor of Lasell, who prompty fed Lauver behind the arc for a three-point shot to put the Lasers up by five points. Forced to foul as time expired, the Cadets sent Lauver to the line three times in the final 50 seconds, where she hit all six free-throws en route to the 69-61 win.

The Lasers hit 40.7 percent (24-59) of field goal attempts over the full 40 minutes, while the Cadets hit 34.4 percent (22-64) from the floor. The scoring differential came at the free-throw line, as Lasell scored 14 points in 18 attempts from the charity stripe, while Norwich hit six of eight shots.

The Cadets return to action on Saturday for a GNAC matchup against Suffolk. A win for Norwich will seal a slot in the 2014 GNAC postseason. Tip-off is slated for 1:00 p.m.