(Old Westbury, NY) – There are two sides to every story, and while the story of the 2005-06 Mount Saint Vincent Women's Basketball team includes a current seven-game losing streak, the other side to that story is thus far is that they continue to battle and compete with the very best their schedule has to offer. Saturday continued the trend as the Dolphins enjoyed another solid defensive effort and spent the entire game nearly dead-even with a deeper and bigger Old Westbury foe, but the Mount ultimately lost their seventh consecutive game, 54-47 to the Panthers.
With the loss, Mount Saint Vincent is now 2-9 overall and 1-5 in Skyline Conference play, but the record is deceiving. With the exception of a disastrous first half of play during a 60-44 loss to St. Joseph's (LI) on Jan. 4, the Mount has been in every game. During six of their seven losses, the Mount has enjoyed three halftime leads, one halftime tie, and two games in which they trailed by three points at the half. On Saturday, the Mount trailed 25-22 after 20 minutes, but were never able to get on track. The Dolphins shot a season-low 23% from the floor (compared to Old Westbury's 30%), and turned the ball over 26 times. They were also outrebounded by Old Westbury, 50-39, allowing the Panthers 15 second chance points, compared to the Mount's four. Despite the tough outing, there were seven ties during the game and nine lead changes, and once again the Mount was right in the thick of things until the very end.
Senior Andrea DiNizo (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Masters) led the Mount with 13 points, while fellow senior Meagan Fitzpatrick (Yonkers, NY/Our Lady of Victory) contributed 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. However, the rest of the Mount Saint Vincent team was a combined 5 for 29 from the floor.
The good news for the Dolphins is that they now return home for eight of their final 11 regular season games after playing only three home games during the first two months of competition. The string of home contests begins on Wednesday, Jan. 18 when the Mount hosts Farmingdale State at 7:00 p.m.
