Blue Knights Come Up Big in Overtime Victory

NEWBURGH – Mount Saint Mary College women’s basketball came up clutch to win a big overtime thriller with St. Joseph’s Long Island.

Mount Saint Mary was looking for revenge against the Golden Eagles after losing by 3 points earlier in the season on St. Joseph’s home court. Sara Cashin got the first bucket for the Knights with assistance from Lauren Petrie. Coming off a career-high 17-point performance, senior guard Casey Love showed up tonight for the Knights on both ends of the court. The Mount held St. Joseph’s to without a made basket for the first 5:03 of the quarter. Mount Saint Mary would finish off the quarter strong leading 16-9 after a last-second layup from Angelina Donato, who not only led the Knights in points this game but also shot a perfect 7-7 from the field. The Mount started off the second quarter looking good, taking a double-digit 21-11 lead. From here, they did not score for the remaining 6:27 of the half as the Golden Eagles went on an 11-0 run that included three made three-pointers to take a 22-21 lead going into the half.

Casey Love opened up the quarter with a three-pointer as the Knights seemed to wake back up after a poor second quarter. Mount Saint Mary led by as many as 7, yet St. Joseph’s stayed in it despite being held to just 32.3% shooting. The Golden Eagles finished off the quarter with some big threes to make the score 33-32 MSMC with only 10 minutes left in regulation. The Knights only made one shot in the opening half of the fourth quarter as St. Joseph’s took a 7-point lead of their own, which felt like a lot more in this low-scoring battle. Mount Saint Mary never gave up, even with their backs against the wall, especially Kate Hughes, who entered the game in the fourth quarter despite not playing the entire game. Hughes knocked down a jumper that gave the Knights their offensive spark.

They also clamped up the Golden Eagles on defense, not allowing them to score in the final 4:45. Brianna Guglielmo stayed quiet most of the game, but she came up clutch for the Mount, scoring their last two made shots, including a tip-in layup with 16 seconds left to force overtime.

The Kaplan Center Gym was electric as the Knights were just 5 minutes away from completing a late-game comeback. Angelina Donato continued to stay hot heading into OT scoring the first 5 points for them, but St. Joseph’s would not go down without a fight. The Golden Eagles took a 51-49 lead midway through until Casey Love responded with a layup to tie the game back up. Brianna Guglielmo once again secured an offensive rebound and a score followed by two huge steal and scores from Kate Hughes and Lauren Petrie to give the Knights a 57-51 lead. The game was not over yet, as some missed free throws down the stretch from Mount Saint Mary gave the Golden Eagles some hope. Up 57-56 with 10 seconds left, Casey Love went to the free throw line and iced both to put the Mount up three. A last-second three from St. Joseph’s was no good as the Knights came away with a huge 59-56 overtime win and sole possession of 2nd place in the Skyline.