MSMC Comes Up Short Against Western Conn.

NEWBURGH – The Mount Saint Mary College Women’s Basketball team overcame a 15 point halftime deficit to tie the score in the fourth quarter, but dropped a hard fought 56-52 non-conference decision to Western Connecticut on Saturday afternoon. Sophomore Kayla Cleare led the Mount with 15 points and posted her fourth double-double of the season in the team’s first loss of the year.

Mount Saint Mary ran out to an 8-2 lead on a Lyndsay Pace lay-in just under seven minutes into the game, but saw the visiting Colonials finish the first period on a 9-0 run to carry an 11-8 lead into the second stanza. Kaitlyn LaBonte tied the score at 8-8 with a bucket and Samantha Smith drained a triple with 32 seconds left in the period to give the visitors the lead.

The Knights saw their deficit grow to 20-8 on a Jancy Sherwood triple with 7:43 left in the second period before Cleare gave the Mount its first bucket since the Pace conversion with 6:48 left in the second quarter to cut the Mount’s disadvantage to 20-10.

Western Connecticut held the Mount to just one more field goal in the second period and outscored the Mount 7-2 after the Cleare conversion to carry a 27-12 lead into the intermission. The Colonials held the Mount to 18.8-percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes and scored 16 points off of 14 Mount Saint Mary turnovers before halftime.

The visitors moved out to a 17 points advantage early in the third period and maintained a double-figure advantage in the second half until a Maite Gtisko (Milford, Conn.) triple with 6:17 left in regulation that cut the Western Connecticut lead to 45-38. The three-pointer was part of a 21-6 run going back to the third stanza that ended with a Megan Kerutis bucket that tied the score at 50-50 with 1:44 left in regulation time.

The Colonials answered with an Emily Dobson bucket with 45 seconds left in regulation that gave them the lead for good in the game. The Knights would close to 54-52 on a Cleare bucket in the closing seconds, but two LaBonte free-throws sealed the win for Western Connecticut.

The Knights rebounded to shoot 43.2-percent in the second half and had seven different players score in the second half as it outscored the Colonials 40-29 after halftime. Cleare paced the Mount with nine second half points, while Dobson poured in 12 points for Western Connecticut after halftime.

Cleare finished the game 6-for-12 from the floor on her way to the game-high in scoring and reached double-figures in rebounds for the fifth time this season with a game-high 14. Kerutis chipped in with 10 points, six rebounds, two assists and a pair of blocks for the Knights.
Bridget Kelly came off the bench to contribute seven points and six boards, with Gritsko finishing with five points and five rebounds for the Knights.

Mount Saint Mary shot a season-low 31.9-percent from the floor on Saturday and finished just 2-for-5 from behind the three-point arc. Western Connecticut converted at  37.3-percent for the game and knocked in five triples. Western Connecticut scored 21 points off of turnovers in the game and scored all eight fast break points in the contest.