Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Jan. 6, 2016) - The Molloy College women's basketball team outscored LIU Post 44-32 in the second half of a 74-63 win over the Pioneers in an East Coast Conference contest at Quealy Gymnasium on Wednesday (Jan. 6). The Lions' overall record improves to 3-9 with a 2-2 mark in ECC play while LIU Post drops to 1-12 (1-4 ECC) on the 2015-16 campaign.
Molloy scored the first five points of the opening quarter thanks to a three-point play by freshman point guard
Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.) along with a jumper by junior guard
Aliyah McDonald (Hempstead, N.Y.). LIU Post, though, came back with six straight points as forwards Nyasia Davis (Rahway, N.J.) and Janaysia James (Perth Amboy, N.J.) got things going for the green and gold. Grady continued to shine in the opening frame with a three-ball to give Molloy a 10-6 lead with 6:08 to play, and the Lions extended the lead to seven less than two minutes later as senior guard
Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.) made a steal-and-score on the fastbreak. The Pioneers came back with consecutive three-balls by freshman guard Shannon Doyle (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) to tie the score at 15 with less than a minute remaining, but Hampton responded with a treble of her own to put Molloy up three and ultimately up 18-16 at the end of the first quarter.
LIU Post took its first lead of the contest in the second quarter, as free throws put the Pioneers ahead 20-18 just shy of 90 seconds into the frame. But the second quarter belonged to Molloy's bench as early foul trouble plagued the maroon and white. Junior guard
Shantana Kanhoye (South Richmond Hill, N.Y.) tied the game with a lay-up at 7:51, but the Pioneers edged ahead by four again midway through the stanza. Sophomore forward
Sabrina Rodriguez (Norwalk, Conn.) swished home a jumper to bring the Lions within two at 24-22 and Kanhoye buried a rainbow three-ball seconds later off of a turnover to give Molloy a 25-24 lead. Following a three by Khea Gibbs (Norwalk, Conn.) for the green and gold, freshman
Bridget Sharnick (Shelton, Conn.) took a nifty fast-break pass from Hampton for a driving lay-up to tie the game again, this time at 27-all with 3:17 to go in the half. Rodriguez then rained in a three-ball to put the Lions ahead for a brief spell until Davis and Kalinka DeRoche (New Haven, Conn.) hit lay-ups to give LIU Post a 31-30 lead going into the locker room.
Both squads started the third quarter with the magic touch, as McDonald opened the second half with a jumper to put the Lions ahead 32-31. The sides would trade the lead for much of the third until senior forward
Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) hit a bucket in the paint to give Molloy a 40-38 lead with 5:58 to play. The home side then went on an 11-4 run over the next three-plus minutes as seniors
Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.) and
Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) hit back-to-back trifectas, giving the Lions a 51-42 advantage with 2:11 to go in the third quarter. LIU Post did not go away quietly as Gibbs, DeRoche and Jalyn Brown (Riverhead, N.Y.) scored seven unanswered to cut Molloy's lead to 51-49 at the end of the third quarter.
James started the fourth with the game-tying jumper just nine seconds into the action, but Molloy ran up 11 straight points to put the game on ice. In the spurt, Hampton scored four points while Jackson added three, with Leftridge and McDonald each adding two points apiece. Jackson's free throw with 6:36 remaining gave the Lions a 62-51 lead, but LIU Post cut it to seven at 62-55 a minute and a half later. Jackson converted on a three-point play to keep the Pioneers at bay, and free throws decided much of the rest of the contest as the maroon and white cruised to the victory.
Leftridge scored a game-high 14 points, leading a charge of five Lions in double-digit point totals on the night. Hampton added 11 off the bench while McDonald poured in 11 with five assists and five rebounds. Grady and Jackson both scored 10 points, while O'Connor added six with four boards. Kanhoye continued her impressive play with five points and a team-high six rebounds, and Rodriguez scored five points in her nine minutes of play as well. The Lions shot 46% (27-59) from the field as a team, hitting 78% (14-18) of its free throws. The hosts also capitalized on 21 LIU Post turnovers, parlaying those miscues into 32 points including 16 fastbreak points.
For LIU Post, Davis (12 & 11) and DeRoche (11 & 11) each collected double-doubles, while Doyle and James also added 11 points. The Pioneers were plus-nine (45-36) in the rebounding statistic, but the green and gold went 6-of-27 (22%) from three-point territory and hit just 58% (19-33) of its free throws.
Head Coach
Joe Pellicane and the Molloy women's basketball team will host last year's ECC Championship runners-up on Saturday (Jan. 9) when NYIT comes to Quealy Gymnasium for a 12 p.m. start. Be sure to follow along with www.molloylions.com for all the latest stats and recaps, and also be sure to check out the Molloy Lions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube (where a live broadcast of Saturday's doubleheader can be seen and heard).
