Balanced Scoring Attack Propels Mount Saint Mary

BROOKLYN – Erin Smith led four Knights in double-figures with a career-high 18 points Saturday afternoon as the Mount Saint Mary College Women’s Basketball team produced its seventh straight victory, pulling away for an 85-60 triumph at St. Joseph’s-Brooklyn.

Saturday’s triumph improves Mount Saint Mary to 11-3 overall on the season and 8-1 in Skyline play, while the Bears fall back below the .500 mark at 6-7 overall and 4-5 in conference competition.

First Half
The Knights and Bears battled in the opening 20 minutes, with the Knights holding a 22-16 lead after 10 minutes and a 45-38 lead at the break.

The Knights never trailed in the game and pushed its lead to double-figures for the first time in the game when a Katie Smith triple with 3:46 left in the first period gave the Mount a 16-5 lead.

The Bears sliced their disadvantage back down to just three points following a 10-2 spurt that was capped by a Kristen Donovan three-pointer with 1:12 left in the quarter.

The Knights answered with four of the final five points of the quarter, a pair of layups from Marissa Campbell, to move back in front by six after 10 minutes.

St. Joseph’s would pull to within two points twice in the second frame, but would not be able to pull even.

An Asia River free-throw with 4:48 left before halftime spread the Knights lead back out to 35-26.

Following a Donovan bucket that cut the Knights’ advantage to 40-37, the Mount got five points from E. Smith in the final 2:09 of the half to carry a 45-38 lead into the break.

The Knights shot 38.6-percent from the floor prior to halftime, but just 3-for-14 from three-point range.

St. Joseph’s was limited to 16 fewer field goal attempts than the Knights in the half and shot 39.3-percent overall and went 4-for-9 from three-point range.

Second Half
The Mount quickly spread its lead back to double-figures with an E. Smith triple to open the third quarter.

The Smith triple started a 7-0 run coming out of the break that pushed the Mount’s advantage to 52-38.

Following the Smith triple to start the quarter, the Mount’s lead would not go below double-figures again in the game.

The lead ballooned to 20 points on a Kate Hughes free-throw with 4:51 left in the third quarter.

The advantage reached 75-46 when Kaeli McAnally canned a three-pointer with 24 seconds left in the period.

Mount Saint Mary pushed its lead to 30 points when Ciarra Quinn converted a layup to make the score 79-49 with 6:33 left in regulation.

The lead reached a game-high 32 points when Cailean Nolan buried a three-pointer to move the advantage to 82-50 with 4:14 left to play.

Nolan converted the team’s final field goal with 1:43 left to make the score 85-54 before the Knights eased to the final 25-point decision.

For The Knights
E. Smith poured in a career-high 18 points, going 6-for-17 from the floor, to go along with four rebounds and three assists.

K. Smith added 13 points for the Mount, finishing with five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Rivera rounded out the victory with 12 points and six rebounds.

Hughes chipped in 11 points and five rebounds.

Quinn hauled in a team-high 10 rebounds.

Lauren Desrats scored eight points and matched the team-high with four assists.

Campbell tallied eight points and collected four rebounds.

McAnally joined Desrats with a team-high four assists.

For The Bears
Emma KIley led the way with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Destiny Hurt scored 10 points and joined KIley with 11 rebounds.

Aaniya Telford finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.

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