Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Feb. 26, 2016) – After a one-year hiatus from the East Coast Conference playoffs, the Molloy College women's basketball team will once again be playing March basketball! The Lions were victorious on Friday (Feb. 26), outlasting Daemen College in a 63-57 thriller at Quealy Gymnasium. 26 combined points from super subs Brianna Perlmutter (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Aliyah McDonald (Hempstead, N.Y.) keyed the maroon and white to the win, which puts them at 11-16 overall and 10-9 in East Coast Conference play. Daemen has been eliminated from postseason contention, falling to 7-12 in conference play and 9-16 overall.
The Wildcats got on the scoreboard first, on a jumper by sophomore Sarah Saba (Lancaster, N.Y.) in the first 15 seconds of the opening quarter of play. Neither team truly got a handle on scoring in the first quarter, as a lay-up by senior Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.) with 6:32 to play in the frame knotted the score up at 2-2. Daemen would bounce back and forth with the lead, opening up an 8-4 advantage on back-to-back jumpers by Saba and Liz Miles (Cicero, N.Y.); the Wildcats ended the quarter up 11-9 with the game only being that close because of three straight points by McDonald.
The points to end the first quarter started a run of 14 unanswered from the maroon and white; Perlmutter provided much of the spark in the early going and her lay-up with five-and-a-half minutes left in the half gave the Lions a 20-11 lead with six minutes to play. Daemen would go on an 11-3 run to close out the half down by one, 23-22. The lead would continue to drift between both squads in the third frame with the Wildcats nudging ahead by five on consecutive threes from Natalie Galus (Hamburg, N.Y.) and Jesse DeWaters (Lockport, N.Y.). Down 36-31 with four minutes to play in the frame, Molloy went on a 9-0 spurt as junior guard Maggie Salomone (Narragansett, R.I.) opened the run with a three-ball with two minutes to go. After a bucket by Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.), McDonald closed the quarter with back-to-back two-pointers to give the Lions a 40-36 edge going into the final frame.
The fourth and final quarter proved to be a frenetic race to the finish. Daemen closed within two points on a bucket by Saba, but Ihnacinse Grady (Amityville, N.Y.) knocked down a three-pointer; Saba and Grady then traded buckets as Molloy kept a five-point lead with less than two minutes gone by in the fourth. The Wildcats would take a 50-49 lead on free throws by Leah McDonnell (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) with 3:21 to play in regulation, but Molloy quickly answered as Leftridge knocked down a jumper to put the maroon and white up by one less than 30 seconds later. On the ensuing Daemen possession, McDonald stole a pass from Somara Colon (Bronx, N.Y.) and drove down the lane with just barely a handle on the basketball. The Hempstead native recovered in time to feed Perlmutter for a lay-up that gave the Lions a three-point lead with two-and-a-half minutes to play. Colon knocked down a lay-up that brought her team within one point just seconds later, but that was as close as Daemen would get to re-taking the lead. Lay-ups by McDonald and Jackson put the Lions ahead by six points at 58-52 with 51 seconds remaining and the lead proved to be insurmountable.
McDonald scored a team-high 15 points and six rebounds off of the bench, hitting 6-of-9 from the field while Perlmutter added 11 points and five boards. Jackson had an 11-point night while Leftridge collected 10 points in the victory. Molloy shot 24-of-64 (37.5%) from the field in the win, but it was the 31-7 edge in points off the bench that played a critical factor in the play-off clincher. Saba had a game-high 23 points for Daemen College while Galus and McDonnell added 11 points for the Wildcats in the loss.
While Molloy is back in the playoffs, the cause for celebration has to be put off for one more day. The Lions host Roberts Wesleyan on Saturday (Feb. 27) in a 12 p.m. start at Quealy Gymnasium on a day when they will honor their four seniors---Leftridge, Jackson, Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.) and Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.).
