Molloy University Athletics

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Jan. 12, 2016) - The Molloy College women's basketball team has continued to show great strides despite a losing record so far in the 2015-16 season. While the nature of the fight that the Lions put up game in and game out is admirable, results are the only thing that matters when determining a playoff berth come March. The maroon and white will attempt to get a positive result on Tuesday (Jan. 12) when the team travels to Flushing to face the defending East Coast Conference champions in Queens College.

The Lowdown on the Lions
Molloy played two solid quarters of basketball on Saturday (Jan. 9) in facing the top team in the conference this season, but ultimately NYIT came away with a 70-56 win over the Lions at Quealy Gymnasium. A combined score of 44-37 between the first and third quarters of play was undone by a minus-19 (33-12) deficit in the even-numbered frames as the Lions struggled to close out either half of hoops on a positive note versus the Bears. Senior Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) had 15 points and seven rebounds while fellow fourth-year Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) had 14 points as well. But the two struggled from the field, going a combined 11-for-31 (35.5%) shooting-wise as the maroon and white were just 20-for-61 (32.8%) from the field as a team. Guards Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.) and Shantana Kanhoye (South Richmond Hill, N.Y.) each had seven points off the bench in the loss.

Kanhoye's Rise To Success
The Queensborough C.C. transfer has played rather well for the Lions off the bench in her last three outings. Against Caldwell on New Year's Eve, Kanhoye scored seven points and was a perfect 3-for-3 shooting from the field while also pulling down five rebounds. Then in the team's 74-63 win over LIU Post on Jan. 6, the junios pulled down a team-high six rebounds in ten minutes of play while scoring five points as well. Her stat line against NYIT read seven points in 11 minutes with two rebounds and no turnovers. Through her last three games, Kanhoye is shooting 80% (8-10) from the field and 60% (3-5) from three-point range while averaging 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. While she has not cracked the starting line-up just yet, Kanhoye is clearly showing a high basketball I.Q. as well as a determination to put her team in the best possible position to win games.

Charity Stripe Is Charitable to Molloy...At Times
Four players for Molloy are currently shooting at or above 82% from the free throw line, including Kanhoye and Hampton who are both over 90% from the stripe. The other two players---freshman point guard Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.) and senior guard Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.)---are a combined 22-for-26 shooting foul shots this year. When any of those four players are shooting foul shots, the efficiency rating is 83%; when any other member of the team is at the line, the efficiency rating dips down to 58%. Therefore, the foul shooting for the Lions is a major key to success and the team's 63.2% rating at the line has to improve if the maroon and white want to play postseason basketball.

Lions' Last Win Over Queens
It came in Rockville Centre back on Nov. 30, 2013 when the Lions built up a 12-point lead at halftime and held on to dispatch the Knights by a final score of 70-66. In that contest, Molloy went to the free-throw line 42 times and hit 32 of their foul shots for a 76.2% efficiency rating. Hampton and Jackson each scored 13 points to lead the team to the win, which was the Lions' second in a season-high four-game winning streak that year.

The Queens Quandary
The Knights started the year off with three straight wins in November over Philadelphia, Holy Family and Assumption before losing to still-unbeaten American International to open up December. Since the loss to the Yellow Jackets, however, Bet Naumovski's team has gone 2-5 with five consecutive losses all on the road. Most recently, the Knights dropped a 57-54 decision to LIU Post on Saturday (Jan. 9) in which the Pioneers outscored their opponents 40-31 over the final two quarters of play. Junior guard Madison Rowland (Albany, N.Y.) had 15 points, 10 rebounds and six steals off the bench, but she was one of three Knights to foul out of the contest along with older sister MacKenzie Rowland and senior forward Elisabeth Gully (Rego Park, N.Y.).

Same Gym, New Beginnings
The Knights scheduled a seven-game road trip from Dec. 9 through Jan. 9 because of renovations being done to their home gymnasium, Fitzgerald Hall. The Lions will be the first opponent that Queens College welcomes in to the newly renovated building, which was first built in 1957 for the college. When fully completed, Fitzgerald Hall will have new mechanical systems and a new gym floor as well as interior design renovations that will be conducive to once again hosting an ECC basketball tournament in the near-future.

Korzevinski's Long, Storied Career
One of the more well-known careers in the history of Long Island high school basketball belongs to Queens senior guard Kristen Korzevinski (New Hyde Park, N.Y.). A three-year player at New Hyde Park Memorial High School, she scored over 1,000 points and had a 40-point game as a senior versus Great Neck South while averaging almost 23 points per contest over her final season before college. As a rookie in 2012-13, Korzevinski was the ECC's Rookie of the Year and has continued to be a leader for the Knights on and off the court. She was the conference's field goal percentage leader last season and an All-ECC Honorable Mention, while this year could be the year she reaches 1,000 points for her collegiate career. Going into Tuesday night's contest, Korzevinski has tabulated 930 points in her career, so all signs point to her making history at some point soon.