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| Courtney Heesemann recorded her 500th career rebound on Saturday at Mount Saint Mary. |
The game was tied twice on Saturday and featured a pair of lead changes that all took place in the first 5:00 of the contest. After a Brittany Griffin (Suffern, NY) jumper gave Mount Saint Vincent a 4-2 lead at 16:38, Mount Saint Mary reeled off 12 straight points to take a 14-4 lead with 10:48 remaining in the half.
The Blue Knight would jump out to their largest lead of the half at 30-15 with just under 2:00 left in the half, before heading to the locker room with a 34-21 lead.
Mount Saint Vincent shot just 23.3-percent in the opening period and turned the ball over nine times. Karissa Koerner (Bay Shore, NY) led the Mount with seven points in the half and Griffin posted six rebounds in the first 20:00 to lead the Dolphins.
Mount Saint Mary (4-3, 2-0 Skyline) jumped out to a game-high 20 point lead early in the second half before the Dolphins began to chip away at the deficit and work their way back into the game. A free-throw from Heesemann got the Mount Saint Mary lead under double digits with 4:53 left in regulation and a three-pointer from Ashley Ruiz (Carmel, NY) with 1:19 left cut the deficit to just two points.
Free throws from Meredith Paggi and Chrissy Zrowka pushed the Blue Knight lead to four with just 10 second remaining. A last second lay-up from Joelle Denotaris (Verona, NJ) would leave the Mount just short of the upset.
Overall in the game, Mount Saint Vincent shot just 27.9-percent from the floor and 33.3-percent from three-point range. The Dolphins also struggled from the charity stripe as they shot just 65.4-percent from the free-throw line in the game.
Heesemann was the only Mount Saint Vincent player to finish in double-figures with her 11 points. She also finished with a team-high nine rebounds, including her 500th which came in the first half. She also finished the contest with two assists and three steals.
Ruiz finished with nine points for the Mount to go along with three rebounds, while Koerner and Jen Mocanu (Middletown, NJ) each finished with eight points. Junior point guard Lauren Perocdani (Staten Island, NY) finished with four of Mount Saint Vincent’s 11 assists in the contest.
The Dolphin defense forced 22 Mount Saint Mary turnovers on Saturday and turned those into 21 points. Mount Saint Mary held a significant advantage on the glass in the game at 58-42, including a 20-11 edge on the offensive end.
Paggi and Jess Tice both posted double-doubles for the Blue Knight in the game, with Paggi finishing with a game-high 17 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Tice chipped in 10 points and a game-high 16 boards in the winning effort.
The loss drops the Mount’s overall record to 3-3 overall on the season and its Skyline Conference mark to 2-1. Up next for the Dolphins is a league contest with St. Joseph’s-LI on Tuesday evening. Tip-off with the Golden Eagles is set for 5:00 p.m. at Hayes Gymnasium.
