Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Feb.6, 2016) – After a tense and low-scoring first half, the Molloy College women's basketball team ran out of time and steam for their rally in a 54-47 loss to District of Columbia on Saturday (Feb. 6) at Quealy Gymnasium. The Lions now fall to 6-15 on the year and 5-8 in East Coast Conference action; UDC improves to 16-5 with an 11-2 mark in ECC play and snaps its two-game losing skid.
Both teams contributed to an overwhelmingly frosty first quarter of play; aside from a lay-up at 7:39 from senior forward Kimani Jackson (Dix Hills, N.Y.), neither team contributed offense for almost 90% of the frame. Were it not for a sudden 7-5 spurt in the final 102 seconds, the stanza would have gone down in the record books as one of the lowest combined point total halves of basketball in Rockville Centre. Sophomore center Amber Bryson (Springfield, Va.) scored UDC's first points of the frame, and teammate Jenka Stiasna (Zvolen, Slovakia) traded three-pointers with senior guard Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.) in making the score run up to 5-5 with just about a minute remaining. The quarter ended in a 7-7 tie thanks to a Bryson bucket and a jumper from Ally Leftridge (Melville, N.Y.) just before the buzzer. The visitors missed their first 11 shots before hitting three straight to end the frame, while the hosts did not fare much better in shooting 3-for-18 (16.7%) in the opening act of Saturday's affair.
The squads woke up somewhat in the second quarter, but the Lions found themselves on the wrong end of a 16-7 frame in falling behind by a 23-14 margin going into the halftime break. Bryson and Jackson traded buckets to open scoring in the period, but UDC eventually took a 14-11 lead on a Stiasna three-ball with 6:19 to play in the half. The Firebirds would eventually grab a 20-11 advantage two minutes later on a lay-up by Iman Scott (Hagerstown, Md.). Free throws determined the scoring through the final four minutes of play, as UDC held a nine-point edge before the beginning of the second half.
The lead swelled to double-digits as the third quarter commenced, with junior guard Brandi Henton (San Jose, Calif.) scoring back-to-back buckets in giving the Firebirds a 13-point margin at 27-14 with 90 seconds gone by in the frame. Molloy attempted to crawl back into the game but were unsuccessful for the majority of the third period, with UDC's Tatyana Calhoun (Disputanta, Va.) giving her team a 31-19 lead with six minutes to go. The Lions were able to bring the game within seven on a lay-up by Leftridge and a three-ball to end the frame from junior guard Maggie Salomone (Narragansett, R.I.). The visitors quelled the momentum with a 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter, and a lefty desperation lay-up by Taj Baldwin-Kollore (Newport News, Va.) with seven-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game gave UDC a 15-point lead (46-31) which proved to be too much to overcome.
Leftridge had a team-high 14 points for Molloy, while Jackson added 11 and O'Connor had eight. The Lions ended the game with a 31.4% field goal percentage (16-51) after shooting just 5-for-26 (19.2%) in the first half alone. The maroon and white were guilty of 22 giveaways which resulted in 17 points for the Firebirds in the contest. For UDC, only Bryson scored in double-figures with 10 points; the bench play though proved to be effective and important as 33 of the Firebirds' points came from players not in the starting five. UDC also was plus-14 (46-32) in the rebounding category on an afternoon in which the squad shot 32.2% (19-59) from the floor.
The Molloy College women's basketball team next heads to Northern Boulevard on Wednesday (Feb. 10) for a contest at the Pratt Recreation Center versus LIU Post at 5 p.m.
