Box Score ALBANY, N.Y. (Dec. 19, 2015) – The Molloy College women's basketball team missed six crucial free throws down the stretch of the final quarter and fell to Saint Rose by a 59-57 final score in the first game of the Saint Rose Holiday Classic at Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium on Saturday.
Molloy (2-7) scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer from senior guard
Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.) in the first 18 seconds. But Saint Rose (5-4) ended the first quarter on a 21-9 run, silencing the Lions and defending Mike Long Court with tenacity. Freshman forward Karissa Birthwright (Rochester, N.Y.) cut the maroon and white lead to one at 3-2 before Taylor Nazon (Chicago, Ill.) buried a three-ball to give the Golden Knights a 5-3 advantage at the 8:07 mark of the frame. Molloy leveled the score at five on a put-back lay-up from senior forward
Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) with 7:49 to play in the stanza. The hosts, though, scored the next ten points of the quarter and held Molloy off the scoreboard for almost five minutes thanks to the play of junior forward Staci Barrett (Elmont, N.Y.). The Long Island Lutheran High School product scored six straight points and had an assist on a lay-up by senior Kelsey Glanzman (Center Moriches, N.Y.) to give the Golden Knights a 15-5 lead with 3:22 remaining in the opening quarter. Molloy cut back into the lead with five straight points as senior
Ally Leftridge (Melfville, N.Y.) drained a three-pointer before O'Connor hit a baseline jumper to make it a 17-12 game with under 90 seconds to play. Saint Rose responded with four points of their own to take a 21-12 lead into the second quarter of play.
The Lions opened the second quarter with a flourish from their bench as junior
Maggie Salomone (Narragansett, R.I.) swished home a three-ball off an assist by
Shantana Kanhoye (South Richmond Hill, N.Y.) at the nine-minute mark to bring the maroon and white within six. That would be as close as Molloy got in the second half, as Saint Rose continued to press and make timely jumpers. Following a Leftridge bucket, freshman guard Ashley Vanderwall (Palmyra, N.Y.) knocked down a transition jumper just inside the three-point arc to bring Saint Rose's lead to ten points at 27-17 with 7:43 remaining in the half. Vanderwall then fed Brittani Stowe (Fort Washington, Md.) for a three-point shot attempt that was true and good, giving the Golden Knights a 30-17 lead. Later in the half, Molloy put on a 6-0 surge as Leftridge hit a three-point shot that was followed by a three-point play from junior forward
Brianna Perlmutter (Brooklyn, N.Y.) to make it a 35-26 game with 1:26 to play in the half. But Saint Rose ended the half with two straight buckets on a jumper by Keyontae Williams (Fredericksburg, Va.) and a last-second lefty lay-in by senior Nicole Bini (Rochester, N.Y.) to send the Golden Knights into the locker room with a 39-26 lead.
Molloy charged out of the locker room with a renewed sense of confidence in the third quarter, as Leftridge and freshman
Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.) scored back-to-back buckets to cut the Golden Knights' lead to single digits. Following a trading of baskets by Barrett and Jackson, junior guard
Aliyah McDonald (Hempstead, N.Y.) knocked down a teardrop in the paint with 6:06 remaining to reduce Saint Rose's lead to 43-34. The Golden Knights led 45-38 until Leftridge nailed a trifecta off of an inbounds play from O'Connor which made the score 45-41 with 2:52 to play. But Molloy could not overcome its own errors, committing a shot clock violation with 1:01 to play in the quarter and yielding a 6-0 run to end the frame down 50-41.
Neither team scored for almost a full two minutes to open the fourth quarter of play until Perlmutter cleaned the glass on an O'Connor miss at the 8:18 mark to slice Saint Rose's lead to 50-43. The Golden Knights were reduced to a suffocating presence by Molloy on defense which caused turnovers and points off of miscues for the maroon and white. Following a pair of Birthwright free throws that gave Saint Rose a ten-point lead with 6:45 remaining, Molloy scored the next nine points as Jackson totaled seven points by herself in the run. But this would also mark the start of missed free throws by the Lions, as Molloy could not capitalize on fouls to take a one-point lead or tie the game three times over the span of the final three-and-a-half minutes. Nazon knocked down a foul shot with 16 seconds remaining, and the visitors had one possession to win or tie the ballgame and force overtime. Unfortunately, Grady's three-point attempt from the far sideline was short with four seconds remaining, and the freshman's second effort off the rebound was long off the rim as time expired.
Leftridge and Jackson scored 19 points apiece for the Lions, shooting a combined 15-of-27 (56%) from the field. Both senior forward also pulled down five rebounds in the game, while McDonald and O'Connor shared the team lead with eight rebounds for the Lions. Molloy shot 35.4% (23-65) from the field, but shot 42% (5-12) from the free throw line including missing the crucial six attempts late in the fourth quarter. The Lions did win the rebounding battle (40-39) and also forced 19 Saint Rose turnovers while giving the ball away 16 times in the loss.
For Saint Rose, Barrett had a team-high 14 points in the win, while Williams and Birthwright added 10 each. The freshman forward had eight rebounds as well, as Glanzman posted six points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench. Nazon was impressive for the black and gold as well, scoring eight points and dishing out seven assists while pulling down five boards in 36 minutes of play.
Molloy concludes its Capital Region swing on Sunday (Dec. 20) when the Lions return to Nolan Gymnasium to face NE-10 foe Franklin Pierce University at 12 p.m.
