Box Score ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Jan. 23, 2016) – Tied at 53 with four-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation, the Molloy College women's basketball team surrendered a 15-5 run to drop a 68-58 decision to the Roberts Wesleyan College Redhawks on Saturday (Jan. 23) in Rochester. Senior guard Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.) had a team-high 14 points for the Lions in the loss, the second straight defeat for Molloy in Western New York over the weekend.
Molloy (5-13, 4-6 ECC) and Roberts Wesleyan (15-3, 7-3 ECC) played to a relatively low-scoring halftime score of 30-23 in favor of the hosts. The maroon and white started the first quarter of the contest well enough; O'Connor gave the Lions a 3-1 lead on a trifecta with 7:35 to play in the frame, and senior Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) hit a lay-up to keep her team ahead 5-3 a minute later. Roberts responded as senior forward Samantha Courtney (Marathon, N.Y.) rattled home a jumper prior to sophomore guard Brooke Fields (Owings Mills, Md.) knocking down a three-ball to give the Redhawks an 8-5 edge with five minutes remaining. Following a Jackson lay-up, sophomore guard Lucy Covley (Fairport, N.Y.) hit another three-pointer to put Roberts in front by a score of 11-7 until Molloy senior Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) responded with a treble of her own with three minutes left in the quarter. Covley answered from long range, but the Lions scored the final five points of the period with a Leftridge lay-up putting the visitors out in front by one, 15-14.
O'Connor opened the second quarter with a two-pointer to put the Lions up 17-14 with 8:11 left in the half, but Courtney responded with a jumper of her own. Then it was Molloy's turn to hit from long-distance as junior guard Maggie Salomone (Narragansett, R.I.) rained in a trey with 6:10 to go. The Lions led 20-16 until back-to-back lay-ups brought the Redhawks even in just 60 seconds. Molloy reclaimed the advantage on a Jackson lay-up and foul shot, with the latter point coming at the 4:13 mark of the half. But the visitors would go cold and quiet from the field for the remainder of the frame, as Roberts Wesleyan struck for a 10-0 half-closing rally punctuated by a Covley three-ball with 47 seconds to go in the quarter. The Fairport native put her team up by seven points at 30-23 as both teams entered the locker rooms at the Voller Athletic Center.
The second half started off about as bad as possible for the maroon and white; within the first five minutes of the third quarter, Roberts expanded the lead to 18 points at 41-23. A nine-plus minute, 21-0 run by the Redhawks was finally stopped on an O'Connor three-ball with 4:55 to play in the frame. Junior guard Shantana Kanhoye (South Richmond Hill, N.Y.) followed with a lay-up that preceded a Salomone three-pointer to bring Molloy within 10 points again at 41-31 and the period would end with O'Connor and Fields trading three-pointers as the hosts held a 48-44 lead. The resiliency of the Lions carried on into the fourth quarter as junior forward Brianna Perlmutter (Brooklyn, N.Y.) opened the final act of play with a jumper in the first 13 seconds off an assist by freshman point guard Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.). At this point, the deficit was just two points with Roberts ahead in the game, 48-46, and Perlmutter swapped two-point buckets with Courtney to keep the deficit at two.
Freshman forward Taylor Bynoe (Williamstown, N.J.) then scored on a lay-up with 7:14 left in regulation to put the Redhawks back up by four points at 53-49. The Lions clawed back within three points as Perlmutter hit the first of two foul shots with 6:24 remaining. The junior forward missed the second foul shot, but Kanhoye grabbed a critical offensive rebound and scored a second-chance lay-up, putting the Lions within one at 53-52 as the clock ticked down to about six minutes remaining. Molloy had several chances to take the lead in the ensuing minute, but could not convert on the opportunities. With just a hair under five minutes remaining, Fields attempted a three-pointer that missed and the ball bounced out of bounds with Molloy taking possession.
Roberts Wesleyan claimed a 55-53 lead with 3:59 to play in the game off of a Fields lay-up, and the Lions could not answer on two chances on the ensuing possession. First, Grady missed a three-pointer that was rebounded by Kanhoye; Jackson's lay-up attempt with 3:06 remaining was blocked by Courtney who would factor into the game's final decision. The Marathon senior scored back-to-back buckets in a thirty-second span to give the Redhawks a 59-53 lead with two minutes remaining. Down the other end came the maroon and white with Jackson hitting two free throws with 1:45 to play, but Courtney again went on the offensive and hit another shot in the paint with 90 seconds on the clock. With the Redhawks leading 61-55, Molloy was in the midst of a five-minute drought from hitting a field goal, with its points coming off of free throws from the 6:05 mark of the fourth. The blight of successful shots ultimately doomed the maroon and white, and a Covley three-ball with less than 30 seconds to play put the finishing touches on the double-digit victory for the hosts at Voller Athletic Center.
O'Connor added a team-high nine rebounds to her 14 points, hitting 4-of-6 from three-point territory in the valiant effort by the Lions. Jackson and Leftridge added 12 points apiece, but combined to shoot just 8-for-27 (29.6%) from the field. Salomone contributed one of her best games of the season, with nine points and five rebounds off the bench in 13 minutes of playing time. Kanhoye was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field in scoring six points and adding two rebounds over her 11 minutes of action, as well.
Courtney paved the way for the Redhawks with a game-high 20 points and 14 rebounds for a double-double in her team's win. The senior was also a shot-blocking machine, swatting away five Molloy attempts on the afternoon. Meanwhile, Fields and Covley added 17 points each, with the guard out of Fairport dialing long-distance and connecting on 50% (5-10) of her tries from beyond the three-point arc. Bynoe added nine points and nine rebounds for Roberts Wesleyan in 34 minutes of action.
Neither team truly shot particularly well in the contest, with Molloy hitting 34.3% (24-70) of its field goals and Roberts shooting just 35.6% (21-59) from the field. Interestingly, both teams went 8-for-23 (34.8%) from behind the three-point line in the game also. The telling stats that ultimately helped decide the contest were turnovers and points off of turnovers. Molloy could score just four points on three mistakes by Roberts through 40 minutes of play; the hosts, on the other hand, forced 10 Lions giveaways and converted them into 14 points. Roberts Wesleyan was also plus-eight (48-40) in the rebounding statistic over the four-quarter contest.
With the first half of the ECC slate in the books, the Molloy College women's basketball team still holds sixth place in the conference standings with a 4-6 record. The Lions will open the backstretch of the 2015-16 campaign on Wednesday (Jan. 27) with a 5 p.m. contest versus Mercy College in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Be sure to follow along with the contest on www.MolloyLions.com where links for live stats and a live video/audio broadcast are also available.
