RIVERDALE – Led by career-highs from Kate Hughes and Cailean Nolan, the Mount Saint Mary College Women’s Basketball team won its ninth straight contest on Thursday with a 77-42 road victory at the College of Mount Saint Vincent. Hughes led the way with 20 points for the Mount with Nolan checking in with 15 in the win.
Thursday’s win gives the Knights the season series sweep of the Dolphins and improves their record to 13-3 overall and 10-1 in conference play. Mount Saint Vincent drops to 7-11 overall and 3-10 against league rivals.
First Half
The Dolphins held an 11-10 advantage following the first period on Thursday.
After the Knights jumped in front 8-4 on a pair of Erin Smith free-throws, the Dolphins scored seven of the final nine points of the first period to take the lead into the second stanza.
Mount Saint Mary was held without a field goal following a Katie Smith jumper with just under three minutes to go in the opening frame.
Mount Saint Mary found itself down 16-10 early in the second period after a Sofia Marcos three-pointer.
The Knights responded with an 8-2 run, highlighted by six points from Hughes, to pull even at 18-18.
Following an Amber Been bucket that tied the score at 22-22, Mount Saint Mary scored the next five points, getting a Nolan triple and Hughes conversion, to grab a 27-22 lead.
Hughes closed out the first half with a bucket in the closing minute to give the Knights their largest lead of the opening 20 minutes and send them into the intermission with a 31-24 advantage.
After going 4-for-16 from the floor in the opening 10 minutes, the Mount shot better than 56-percent in the second stanza.
Mount Saint Mary shot 40.6-percent in the first half, but went just 1-for-6 from three-point range.
Hughes led the way with 18 points prior to the intermission.
Second Half
The Mount stifled the Dolphins in the second 20 minutes, outscoring Mount Saint Vincent 46-18 after halftime.
The Knights scored the first nine points of the third quarter, getting seven points from Lauren Desrats, to open a 40-24 advantage early in the period.
The lead jumped to 46-26 on an E. Smith triple midway through the quarter.
Another E.Smith trey gave the Knights a 49-28 advantage.
A Charlotte Twohig layup with 10 ticks left in the third period sent the Mount to the final 10 minutes with a 55-35 lead.
The Knights began the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run, with Nolan connecting on a pair of triples, pushing the advantage to 65-35.
The advantage would swell to a game-high 35 points twice in the final 3:24 after Casey Love hit a jumper with 3:24 left and Brianna Guglielmo hit a layup in the closing seconds to give the Mount the final 77-42 advantage.
Mount Saint Mary shot an efficient 51.5-percent from the floor after halftime, including a blistering 8-for-15 effort from three-point range.
The Mount Saint Mary defense held the Dolphins to just 25.9-percent shooting after the break.
For The Knights
Hughes reached the 20-point mark for the first time in her career after going 9-for-16 from the floor. She closed out her second straight double-double with 10 rebounds and added three assists, a block and a steal.
Nolan reached her career-high point total on the strength of 5-for-7 shooting from three-point range.
E. Smith contributed 12 points to the victory to go along with three assists and two steals.
K. Smith scored 11 points and handed out five assists.
Desrats totaled nine points, three assists and five steals.
For The Dolphins
Been led the team with 13 points and matched the game-high with 10 rebounds.
Kira Villegas scored seven points and swiped three steals.
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