DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. – Redshirt-sophomore forward Brenna Cloud (Delran, N.J.) pulled down a career-high nine rebounds on Tuesday evening against Mercy College, with the Concordia College New York women's basketball team using a strong start to the fourth quarter to turn a double-digit deficit down to two points but could not complete the comeback-effort in a 66-60 decision.
NOTES
• Concordia falls to 1-9.
• Mercy improves to 6-3.
STANDOUT PERFORMERS
• Sophomore guard Sara Hopkins (Mountain Top, Pa.) scored a season-high 18 points with two assists.
• Junior guard Shanice Graves (Brooklyn, N.Y.) chipped in 15 points and eight rebounds to go with four steals and a team-high three assists.
• Cloud added a block and four points to her nine rebounds.
• Redshirt-freshman guard Jaylene Brown (Bronx, N.Y.) set her career-high with eight boards.
• Senior guard Nicole Nicholson (Staten Island, N.Y.) contributed four steals on the defensive end.
• For Mercy, Katie Wall scored 17 points while Abigail Collier logged eight rebounds and Taysha Bender dished out four assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Concordia jumped out to an early 5-0 lead off a layup from Cloud and triple from Graves in the opening minute of play. Mercy answered with back-to-back baskets to get within one at 5-4, but a Graves extended the lead to 7-4 with 6:56 left to play. Mercy knotted the score at 9-all, with the two sides splitting the ensuing eight points to keep the score tied at 13-13 before a 7-0 run by the host created a 20-13 score with 1:25 left in the frame. Freshman guard Marigona Bacaliu (Worcester, Mass.) ended the run on a jumper, with Hopkins adding a layup with two seconds remaining to make it 20-17 at the end of the quarter.
• Following a Mercy triple to start the second quarter, Concordia scored six-straight to even the score at 23-23 with 8:20 remaining in the half. Mercy reclaimed the lead off a jump shot, adding two more baskets to give the host a 29-23 advantage with 5:18 remaining in the quarter. Concordia and Mercy each added five points to its total before halftime, creating a 34-28 score at the intermission.
• Graves scored the initial basket of the second half, sparking a 9-4 stretch the cut the deficit to one at 38-37 with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter. The host countered with a 9-0 run to create a double-digit separation at 47-37, with each side scoring a basket in the final minute to keep the 10-point gap at 49-39 going into the final quarter.
• Opening the final quarter with back-to-back layups in first minute, the Clippers used a 13-5 stretch to cut the separation to two at 54-52 with 5:54 remaining in the game. Following a made basket from each team to maintain the two-point deficit, the host used a layup and two free throws to pull ahead 60-54 with 2:11 left to play. Hopkins connected on a layup with 1:21 remaining, but three-consecutive free throws from Mercy in the final minute extended the separation to seven with the hosts adding three more points from the charity stripe over the final 10 seconds while Graves and Hopkins each scored to create the final score.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• The Clippers converted on 23-69 shots, going 4-16 from three-point territory and 10-23 from the free throw line.
• Mercy finished 21-65 from the field, 7-23 from distance and 17-22 from the free throw line.
• Concordia recorded seven assists while Mercy had 14.
• Mercy held a 55-43 advantage in rebounds.
• Concordia committed 15 turnovers, resulting in nine points for Mercy. The host had 23 turnovers, leading to 22 points.
• Concordia recorded 14 steals with four blocks while the Mavericks had four steals with three blocks.
• Concordia's bench scored 16 points while Mercy got 26 from its bench.
UP NEXT
The women's basketball team returns to Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) play on Wednesday, Dec. 18 with a 5:30 p.m. contest at Felician University.
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