Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Feb. 27, 2016) - After trailing for much of the contest, the Molloy College women's basketball team utilized a 20-point fourth quarter to spring an emphatic season-ending upset on Roberts Wesleyan on Saturday, 55-49, at Quealy Gymnasium. The win gives the Lions a 12-16 overall record and an 11-9 mark in East Coast Conference play, which bags the maroon and white the No. 5 overall seed in next week's East Coast Conference Tournament. Roberts Wesleyan drops to 22-6 overall and 14-6 in ECC play and will, in all likelihood, host Molloy on Wednesday (Mar. 2) in the ECC Play-In game at Voller Athletic Center in Rochester.
The Lions went ahead 7-2 in the early parts of the first quarter as three of the four seniors honored in a pregame ceremony did the damage:
Alexia O'Connor (Centerport, N.Y.) hit a three-pointer which was then followed by lay-ups from
Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) and
Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.). The Redhawks took an 11-9 lead thanks to a three-point play from freshman guard Ajia McIntyre (Greece, N.Y.) with under a minute to go in the first quarter and Roberts Wesleyan ended the frame up 13-10. Free throws dictated the first few minutes of the second quarter until senior guard
Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.) drained a three-pointer to get her side within two points at 17-15 with 6:15 to go until halftime. Then junior guard
Shantana Kanhoye (South Richmond Hill, N.Y.) hit a jumper less than a minute later to tie the score at 17; the Redhawks would outscore Molloy 6-4 the rest of the way to go into the halftime break up 23-21.
Following a free throw by Samantha Courtney (Marathon, N.Y.) to open the third quarter of action, O'Connor tied the score at 24 with a trifecta just 49 seconds in. Leftridge gave the Lions a brief lead at 26-24 with a jumper at the 3:37 mark of play, but Roberts stormed back in front with a 7-0 run in a 51-second spurt late in the quarter. A three-ball by Brooke Fields (Owings Mills, Md.) put the Redhawks ahead 39-33 with 47 seconds to go but free throws by
Aliyah McDonald (Hempstead, N.Y.) brought Molloy back within four points at 39-35 heading into the final period of play. The Lions actually started the fourth quarter poorly, trailing by seven points with under seven minutes to play in the contest. Over the next three minutes though, the complexity of the game changed dramatically. O'Connor scored five points on her own and junior forward
Brianna Perlmutter (Brooklyn, N.Y.) tied the game at 45-all with a jumper as the clocked tick down near three minutes. Leftridge and O'Connor would hit back-to-back treys to send the home crowd into a frenzy and give Molloy a 51-46 lead with under two minutes to go, and it was a lead that proved to be too much for Roberts to overcome.
O'Connor led all scorers with 15 points on a 50% (5-10) performance from the field. Jackson and Leftridge nearly contributed double-doubles, with nine points and ten boards for Jackson and eight and ten for Leftridge, respectively. Off the bench, McDonald added nine points while Perlmutter had six points and six rebounds. For the Redhawks, freshman forward Taylor Bynoe (Williamstown, N.J.) had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds while Necedah James (Syracuse, N.Y.) added 12 points as well. Courtney had 11 rebounds and Lucy Covley (Fairport, N.Y.) pulled down 12 boards; the Redhawks shot 25.5% (14-55) from the field and just 15% (3-20) from three-point land in the game. Molloy shot 31% (18-58) from the floor but hit 35.3% (6-17) of its three-point tries.
Check back with www.MolloyLions.com tomorrow night as we find out just where the Molloy College women's basketball team will go to play in the East Coast Conference Tournament on Wednesday!
