Molloy University Athletics

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Nov. 29, 2015) - The Molloy College women's basketball team will celebrate the Thanksgiving weekend with something that the players, coaches and fans are probably all thankful for: the first home game of the 2015-16 season. The Lions will host a Pace University squad in a non-conference battle as the maroon and white attempt to protect Quealy Gymnasium and get off on the right foot at home in the new campaign.

The Lowdown on the Lions
Through the first four games of the season, Molloy has one victory and is currently on a three-game losing streak. The two trips that the Lions have been on have been starkly different in the results, as well as the statistics. Last weekend, the maroon and white lost two low-scoring defensive struggles to Southern New Hampshire (49-36) and Merrimack (55-53). But the story of both games was the rebounding margin and how wide it favored the opponents of the Lions in both contests. Southern New Hampshire outrebounded Molloy by a 58-33 margin while Merrimack grabbed 59 boards to Molloy's 30. 

Leftridge and Jackson Lead The Way
On a team that has had its struggles down low on the blocks, the senior frontcourt duo of Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) and Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) have been the spark plugs shooting and scoring to keep the Lions involved in the games they play. Leftridge currently has a team-leading average of 20.8 points per game while Jackson is averaging 12.5 points and seven rebounds per contest. Those numbers are also quantified by how well each player is shooting from the field, with Leftridge averaging a 46% performance per contest and Jackson hitting shots at a 44% clip.

Good Grady!
Against Merrimack last Saturday (Nov. 21), Molloy lost at the buzzer when the referees deemed that freshman guard Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.) did not get a three-point shot attempt off in time. While that put a damper on the young point guard's outing versus the Warriors, it has not stopped the fact that Grady's play has turned plenty of heads so far through the first portion of the season. The freshman is averaging five points, three rebounds and two-and-a-half assists per game but she is also leading the team with 15 steals through four games. What's more impressive is that Grady has been able to keep the turnovers down below her assist total (nine assists, six turnovers), which is something that can concern a coaching staff about a point guard transitioning to college basketball from high school hoops.

Previewing Pace
The Setters got off to a fast start to the season and rocketed to the No. 7 ranking in the D2SIDA Women's Basketball Media Poll before taking on Saint Rose on Tuesday (Nov. 24) before the Thanksgiving break. The trip to Albany was not favorable for the Setters, who ended up on the wrong side of a 58-46 game thanks to the Golden Knights. Junior center Kirsten Dodge (Fabius, N.Y.) had a career game off the bench with 19 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 75% (8-12) from the field but just 30% (3-10) from the free-throw line. The only other Setter in double-figures pointswise was sophomore guard Gabriella Rubin (Staten Island, N.Y.) who has 10 points.

Setters Stand Tall
Molloy might be spending a majority of their time looking up at their opponents on Sunday for one very specific reason. Pace has six players on their roster that stand at or above six feet tall, while the Lions only have two players---sophomore Sabrina Rodriguez (Norwalk, Conn.) and junior Brianna Perlmutter (Brooklyn, N.Y.) that hit the charts at 5'11''. The aforementioned Dodge, by the way, may be one of the tallest players in the East Region at six-foot-five while senior forward Yuni Sher (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) is six feet tall exactly.

Sher's Long Island Connections
If the name Yuni Sher sounds familiar to Long Island basketball aficionados, that is because she was part of the dynamic program for Long Island Lutheran High School out in the Muttontown/Brookville area. Sher was a senior back in 2012 for LuHi, on a team that included then-freshman and now University of Michigan freshman Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski, who was last year's New York Miss Basketball and a Gatorade Player of the Year.

Matchup History
In regular season play, Pace was victorious over Molloy when the teams last met on Nov. 19, 2003. The Setters squashed the Lions with a 104-52 thumping in Pleasantville but Molloy would get the most recent laugh seven years later in 2010. The two teams faced off in the NCAA East Region Quarterfinals in a 4-5 matchup on Mar. 12 with the maroon and white winning their first-ever NCAA Tournament game in knocking off the Setters by a score of 52-36. So yes, Molloy is currently averaging 52 points per game in its most recent matchups with Pace and the Lions are in fact 1-1 in the most recent meetings.