SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Senior Kierra Moore (Albany, N.Y.) scored a team-high 12 points, but the Saint Anselm College women's basketball team suffered a 58-53 loss to Le Moyne College on Friday evening in a Northeast-10 Championship first round tilt at Ted Grant Court.
The Hawks, who were seeded fifth in the Northeast Division and were playing in their first Championship since 2011, wrap up their season at 15-12 overall. It is the highest win total for the team since the 2003-04 campaign. The Dolphins, who are seeded fourth in the Southwest, improve to 15-12 and move on to face undefeated and top-ranked Bentley University in a quarterfinal matchup Sunday (3 p.m.) afternoon in Waltham, Mass.
Moore knocked down a career-high four 3-pointers on just six attempts, to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Freshman Candace Andrews (Boston, Mass.) returned after a three-game absence due to injury and netted 11 points (5-12 FG; 1-3 3-FG), while adding a pair of assists. Senior Allie Jones (So. Kingstown, R.I.) was also in double figures with 10 points (5-7 FG) and seven boards.
Alex Marple led Le Moyne with a game-high 21 points, while Emily Greer added 19.
If anyone needed a reminder of just how cruel the game of basketball can be, this contest provided it as Le Moyne never led until the final 1:10 of the game.
Saint Anselm led, 50-46, with less than three minutes to go when Marple went 4-for-4 from the free throw line to knot the game at 50 with 2:06 left. Following a miss on the other end, Kayla Stroman banked in a 15-foot jumper from the middle of the floor to give the Dolphins their first lead of the night at 52-50 with 1:10 on the clock.
Then, a questionable no-call gave the ball back to Le Moyne and Marple dropped in a layup to stretch the lead to 54-50 with 31 seconds left. Bath-Sheba McMahon sank a pair at the line with 21 seconds to go after another miss for the Hawks. Andrews then drilled a 3-pointer from the right corner to slice the lead in half with 9.1 seconds on the clock, but Stroman sank a pair at the line to seal the win two seconds later.
Saint Anselm outshot Le Moyne, 44.9 percent (22-49) to 40.4 percent (19-47), while the Dolphins held a 43.8 percent (7-16) to 38.9 percent (7-18) from long range. Le Moyne also cleaned up at the line as it went 13 of 15 (86.7%), while the Hawks were just 2 of 3 (66.7%). The Dolphins owned a 19-12 margin in points off turnovers after giving it away just 11 times and forcing 16 Saint Anselm mistakes. Saint Anselm edged Le Moyne on the glass (30-28), while points in the paint were even (18-18).
The Hawks jumped out to a 6-0 lead 2:35 into the contest and still led by six, 16-10, when a 6-2 spurt from Le Moyne cut its deficit to just a pair at 18-16 with 9:05 remaining in the opening half. Saint Anselm held strong and ripped off 10 straight points – bookended by 3-pointers from Moore and classmate Briana Jones (White Plains, N.Y.) – to open up a 28-16 advantage with 5:57 left.
Le Moyne responded in a big way, however, as it closed the half on an 11-1 run – with five points from Emily Greer – to slice its halftime deficit to 29-27.
After the Dolphins tied it to open the half, Saint Anselm used four different scorers to craft a 9-0 run that put it back on top, 38-29, less than five minutes in. The gap was seven nearly eight minutes later when another Moore trifecta gave the Hawks their second 10-point lead of the contest at 46-36 with 7:23 to go.
Five straight points from Greer, however, touched off a 10-2 stretch that featured the other five points from Marple and trimmed the deficit back to a pair at 48-36 with just under four minutes to go. The Hawks called a timeout before Allie Jones converted a layup to right the ship and move the lead to four, but Le Moyne closed the contest on a 12-3 run to steal the victory.
Bri Jones recorded nine points (3-7 FG; 2-5 3-FG; 1-2 FT), four rebounds and two assists, while senior Tori Lehr (Cohasset, Mass.) posted nine points (4-10 FG; 1-1 FT) and nine boards.
This marked the final game for seniors Moore, Allie Jones, Briana Jones, Lehr, Meg Morrissey (So. Kingstown, R.I.), Ashley Viselli (Groveland, Mass.), Mariah Wynn (Boston, Mass.) and Jenna Lemoi (Providence, R.I.).
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