STANDISH, Maine—The eighth-seeded Norwich University women's basketball team fell 63-47 to the second-seeded Monks of St. Joseph's College in the championship game of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference tournament.

The Monks become the first team other than Emmanuel College to win a GNAC Championship in eight years. Top-seeded Emmanuel, who had won seven-straight GNAC titles, were ousted by the Cadets in the quarterfinal round of the tournament. The Monks (23-5) will advance to the 64-team NCAA tournament.

Junior Aliah Curry (Windsor, Mass.) netted a team-high 14 points for the Cadets, while Erin Clark (Newbury, Vt.) chipped in with 10. Both Curry and junior Kelsey Lotti (South Yarmouth, Mass.) were named to the GNAC's All-Tournament team, alongside Mackenzie Dufour and Morgan Cahill of St. Joseph's.

Abby Young was named the All-Tournament MVP following her championship double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds. Cahill also had a double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Theresa Hendrix added 11 points.

The Cadets struggled offensively in the first half, as they hit just seven field goals in 31 attempts to total a 22.6 percent shooting effort. The Monks hit 13 field goals in the first half, three of which were from three-point range. The Monks scored the first basket of the game on a Cahill jumper, but Norwich answered with a three-pointer by Brown on the Cadets' next trip down the floor.

After over two minutes of scoreless play, St. Joseph's Skyler Makkinje hit a three-pointer. Lotti hit a jumper to tie the score at 5-5, but it would mark the last time the Cadets would be close as the Monks followed with 10-0 run in three minutes to take a 15-5 lead with 14:36 still to play.

A jumper by Curry at the 12:08 mark cut the Monks' lead to five at 17-12, but an 8-0 run would put the hosts up 25-12 with 8:32 to play. Following a Makkinje three-pointer minutes later to set the score at 30-16, Norwich's Lotti and Clark combined four four straight points to bring the Cadets within 10 points at 30-20. The game would see almost two-and-a-half minutes of scoreless play before Young would break the streak with a free-throw at the 2:02 mark. Her free-throw would mark the last point of the half, as the Monks carried the 31-20 lead into halftime.

Norwich would cut the Monks' lead to nine as LeBlanc netted the first basket of the secod half on a layup, but the Monks were quick to respond with a layup of their own. The Cadets managed to stay within a 10- to 12-point margin for the first 10 minutes of the second half, but the Monks hit some big shots in the final five minutes of the game en route to the 63-47 win.  

The Cadets totaled a 31.6 percent (18-57) shooting effort over the full 40 minutes, while the Monks hit 38.7 percent (24-62) of field goal attempts.

The Monks outscored Norwich 28-22 in points in the paint and held a 14-9 advantage in second-chance points.