Molloy University Athletics

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Dec. 16, 2015) – The Molloy College women's basketball team plays its final conference game of the 2015 calendar year on Wednesday (Dec. 16) against the Firebirds of UDC. While both teams will go into the night with different results to begin the 2015-16 campaign, each team has something to prove when the contest begins in our nation's capital.

The Lowdown on the Lions
The Lions are 2-5 on the young season and 1-1 in East Coast Conference play, with a 62-53 loss to Saint Thomas Aquinas on Saturday (Dec. 12) in their most recent match-up. Molloy led for much of the first three quarters, but the Spartans took a 49-47 lead at the end of the third quarter and started the final period of play on an 11-0 run to cement a win over the maroon and white at Aquinas Hall. Seniors Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) and Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) each totaled 15 points for Molloy, with Leftridge grabbing a team-high eight rebounds.

McDonald's Off the Bench
Junior guard Aliyah McDonald (Hempstead, N.Y.) has been a different player for the maroon and white in the first two conference games of the year. In four non-conference match-ups, McDonald averaged 5.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game as the first player off the bench. But in games against both Mercy and Saint Thomas Aquinas, the junior scored 12 points, shooting 9-of-16 from the field and pulling down an average of 4.5 rebounds per contest. The one portion of McDonald's game that may be holding her back is her assist/turnover ratio (9 assists, 17 turnovers) through the first seven games of the season.

O'Connor Still Finding The Touch
Senior guard Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.) has had several good games this season, including scoring a team-high 19 points in the Lions' 69-40 victory over Mercy College on Wednesday (Dec. 9). But how the Centerport native plays has been a major indication of how the maroon and white perform in contests so far this year. In Molloy's two victories thus far, O' Connor is averaging 18.5 points and six rebounds per game with a deft shooting touch as well. The senior is shooting 63% (10-16) from the field, 88% (7-8) from beyond the three-point line and a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line. In the Lions' losses, O'Connor is averaging 21% (8-38) from the field shooting as well as a 21% mark (5-24) from the three-point line.

75.7%
Through seven games, the Molloy starting five has been the same with Leftridge, Jackson and O'Connor being accompanied by senior guard Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.) and freshman point guard Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.). This core group of five has played in exactly 154.3 of 203.6 minutes per game, meaning that for exactly 75.7% of the minutes played this season those five have been on the court. It's an overwhelmingly large share of minutes spread amongst just a five-person battalion, but with McDonald and fellow junior Brianna Perlmutter (Brooklyn, N.Y.) among the many bench players that are showing promise, the Lions may be more inclined to use more players in the rotation.

D.C. Declassified
The University of the District of Columbia women's basketball team is the current owner of a four-game winning streak after starting the year with a 2-3 record. The Firebirds' run of victories have come over non-regional opponents Tampa and Lincoln (Pa.) before a weekend of wins in Western New York versus ECC foes Roberts Wesleyan (in a triple-overtime classic) and Daemen most recently.

Burroughs At The Helm
UDC's women's basketball program owes a lot to Lester Butler, Jr., who left the program at the end of the 2014-15 season to take the reins of his alma mater and coach at Virginia Union University. For a school with a blossoming program that had put forth back-to-back 20-win seasons---but one that was losing senior standouts Denikka Brent and Telisha Turner---finding the right coach was imperative. UDC elected to stay in-house and promote DeWayne Burroughs to the head coaching position, as it was Burroughs who recruited Brent, Turner and current senior leader Tajruba Baldwin-Kollore (Newport News, Va.). Keeping a main cog of last year's ECC regular-season champions and the No. 22 team in Division II women's basketball at the end of last year's campaign was important to the administration of UDC and Burroughs came with coaching experience at Chesapeake College and Bowie State University as well.

Firebirds Spread Out the Scoring
Along with Baldwin-Kollore's team-leading average of 18.3 points per game, the Firebirds boast three more scorers in seniors Iman Scott (Hagerstown, Md.), Tatyana Calhoun (Disputanta, Va.) and Tiara Goode (Brentwood, N.Y.) who are all averaging 8.2 points per game or better. But the wild card for UDC is in the Firebirds' fifth-leading scorer: East Carolina transfer Jenka Stiasna (Zvolen, Slovakia). Stasiana has made her presence known in the last four games, averaging a shade over eight points and four rebounds per contest. She is also knocking down 47% of her three-point attempts and has hit 7-of-8 from the free throw line as well.

Déjà Vu?
It may be a weird coincidence, but it is worth noting. Last season, UDC defeated NYIT on Jan. 31 in a 98-95 triple-overtime contest. It was the only time the Firebirds had played more than 40 minutes in a contest, and it was one of the reasons that UDC ended up winning the East Coast Conference's regular-season title for the first time in school history. As mentioned earlier, the Firebirds have already played a triple-overtime contest and triumphed over an ECC school in that game…so if the pattern of the past dictates the future, UDC may be the No. 1 seed when ECC Tournament time comes around. Ironically, as it was pre-determined before the season, the conference championship this year is hosted by UDC.