Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Feb. 10, 2016) – After building a 41-31 lead and watching LIU Post send the contest to overtime in stunning fashion, the Molloy College women's basketball team got an unexpected lift from junior guard Maggie Salomone (Narragansett, R.I.) to outlast their opponents in a 95-87 double-overtime triumph in Brookville on Wednesday (Feb. 10). Salomone's 16 points included 13 between the two extra sessions to lift Molloy into a tie for fifth place with Saint Thomas Aquinas in the East Coast Conference standings at 6-8 (7-15 overall). LIU Post, meanwhile, saw its three-game win streak snapped and its record fall to 5-18 overall and 5-10 in ECC play.
The Lions started the game off well enough, as the senior brigade of Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.), Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) and Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) sent Molloy out to a 19-6 lead in the first five minutes of the contest. Freshman point guard Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.) would then swipe the ball out of the hands of freshman Amber Jones (Bronx, N.Y.) and drive for a fast-break lay-up to give the maroon and white its largest lead of the game at 15. The Lions held a 23-12 lead after one quarter of play, and the 11-point advantage held up into the second frame as junior guard Aliyah McDonald (Hempstead, N.Y.) hit a lay-up in the paint with 4:08 until halftime. Salomone would make her presence felt a short time later with a three-pointer to give Molloy a 36-22 lead with three-and-a-half minutes to play, and the junior ended the quarter with a steal to keep her side ahead by double digits at 41-31.
The Pioneers chipped away at the lead in the third period of play, getting as close as five points down at 51-46 on a lay-up by Shannon Doyle (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) with 3:19 remaining. Just over a minute later, Grady knocked down a three-ball that kept her side in front as the Lions took to the fourth quarter with a 54-48 edge over the competition. In that final act of regulation, the maroon and white extended the lead to 11 points with 95 seconds to play; free throws, though, would come back to bite Molloy and breathe new life into LIU Post. The visitors went 4-for-10 (40%) down the stretch from the foul line while the Pioneers leveled the score at 71-all and forced overtime.
One extra session of play would prove to be incapable of deciding a winner; O'Connor hit three free throws but Khea Gibbs (Norwalk, Conn.) answered with a three-pointer of her own. Then after Grady hit a jumper in the paint with 2:23 to play, junior forward Melsha Messam (St. Albans, N.Y.) responded with a tying bucket less than one minute later. Neither team scored in the final 77 seconds of the frame, however, so a second extra period was needed. In that ultimately last overtime, Salomone shined with nearly all of the starters having fouled out in prior action. After a jumper by Jalyn Brown (Riverhead, N.Y.) put LIU Post ahead 82-80 with just under three minutes remaining, the Rhode Island native drained a three-pointer to get her side back up by one. Salomone put her team back ahead with two free throws with just over a minute-and-a-half to play, and with the game tied at 86 and the clock under a minute she would convert a three-point play after a steal. That started an 8-1 personal run by Salomone that put the game completely out of reach for the Pioneers in a clutch and critical win for Molloy.
Salomone officially went 8-for-9 from the free throw line and was one of six Lions that scored over ten points in the victory. O'Connor had a team-high 21 points (6-of-7 field goal shooting, 5-of-6 three-point shooting), Leftridge added 14, Jackson and McDonald had 13 each and Grady scored 11. Senior guard Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.) had six points with three rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals and junior guard Shantana Kanhoye (South Richmond Hill, N.Y.) pulled down six rebounds in 23 minutes of action. As a team, Molloy shot an exact 50% (30-60) from the field and also from three-point range (11-22); the Lions were just 58.5% (24-41) from the free-throw line but that number was buoyed by a 74% effort in overtime (14-19) from the stripe. The Lions were minus-15 (52-37) in the rebounding category and totaled 22 turnovers in the contest. Only two Pioneers scored in double-figures with senior center Nyasia Davis (Rahway, N.J.) leading the way with a game-high 26 and Gibbs contributing 23 points. Davis also pulled down 15 rebounds off of the bench for LIU Post. The Pioneers, though, continued to have difficulty at the free throw line (15-31, 48.4% overall) in the loss.
The Molloy College women's basketball team now turns its attention to Saturday (Feb. 13) when the Lions travel to Recreation Hall in Old Westbury to face the undefeated-in-conference and postseason-bound Bears of NYIT at 12 p.m.
