MSMC Blue Knights Earn Third Straight Victory

KINGS POINT – The Mount Saint Mary College Women’s Basketball team outscored the United States Merchant Marine Academy by seven points in the fourth period and held the Mariners to a single point in the final 5:40 to pull away for a 50-38 win on Saturday afternoon. Freshman Jordyn Hellpap paced the scoring attack with 10 points.
In a tightly contested game, the Mount broke open a one point lead with 5:41 left in regulation with a 12-1 run to secure its third straight victory. The Knights scored seven straight points before a free-throw from the Mariners’ Kelsey Hofmann and closed the game with the final five tallies, including four points from Kayla Cleare to finish off the win.
The Mount held USMMA to just 13 second half points as the Mariners shot 11.5-percent from the floor over the final two quarters. Two of the Mariners’ three field goals in the second half came from behind the arc, with the team’s only bucket of the third stanza coming on a Gabrielle Salazar triple with 17 seconds left in the frame.
After halftime, the Mount went 8-for-19 from the floor and knocked in half of its four three-point field goal attempts. Hellpap went 2-for-2 from distance over the final two periods, while Maite Gritsko led the second half scoring output with seven points, knocking in three of her four field goal attempts.
Over a tightly contested first half, the Mount took its first lead of the day on a Cleare bucket at the 6:58 mark of the first period and carried a 17-9 lead into the second stanza after Hellpap knocked down the first of her three triples of the day with 10 seconds left in the first period.
The Knights jumped out to a 19-9 lead on a Lyndsay Pace bucket early in the second quarter, but saw the Mariners put together a 9-2 stretch late in the first half and pull to within 26-25, before a Cleare conversion in the closing seconds sent the Mount to the intermission with a 28-25 advantage.
The Knights shot 42.6-percent from the floor for the game and went 5-for-9 from behind the arc. The Knights held USMMA to 20.7-percent shooting for the day and offset an 18-2 disadvantage in second chance scoring with an 18-6 edge in points in the paint on the day.
Hellpap was the lone player to score in double-figures for the Knights, going 3-for-8 from the floor, but 3-for-3 from bonus distance. Cleare chipped in with eight points and joined Jessica Rini with a team-high nine rebounds.
Gritsko and Megan Kerutis contributed seven points apiece, with Kerutis handing out two assists and Gritsko swiping a pair of steals.
USMMA was led by 10 points from Rachel Weinburg and received nine rebounds and a game-high three assists from Kaleigh D’Arcy.