Final Statistics
Purchase, N.Y. – After reeling off four straight wins the College of Mount Saint Vincent Women's
Basketball team has now dropped two in a row after a tough 56-51 loss at league rival Purchase on Thursday night. Three Dolphins scored in double figures in the contest, including
Courtney Heesemann (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) who posted her third straight and 34th career double-double.
Points were tough to come by in the opening moments on Thursday, with Purchase scoring the first points of the game nearly two minutes after the opening tip. After a Shayla Diaz jumper pushed the Panthers in front 4-1 with 17:10 left in the half, neither team scored a point until Amanda Capone drilled a triple giving Purchase a 7-1 lead with 14:39 left until the half.
The Mount scored the next five points on a pair of free-throws from Heesemann and a triple from Ciara Clarke (Warwick, N.Y.), but Purchase responded with 9-0 run to open a 10 point lead. The run was keyed by three pointers from Diaz, Melanie Culpepper and Capone to push the Panthers in front 16-6 with just over nine minutes to play in the period.
Mount Saint Vincent battled back to grab its first lead of the night after a Karissa Koerner (Bay Shore, N.Y.) jumper moved the Dolphins in front 22-21 with 2:30 remaining in the opening 20 minutes. The bucket capped off 14-2 run for the Dolphins over a nearly six minute stretch.
A Clarke layup at the 1:59 mark moved the Mount in front by three, but Purchase would score the final three points of the half, all on free-throws, to knot the score at 24-24 heading into the locker room.
Lauren Percodani (Staten Island, N.Y.) led the Mount with six points in the first half and was tied with Heesemann for the team lead with seven rebounds. The Dolphins shot just 24.2-percent from the floor in the half and just 50-percent from the free-throw line.
The second half was played just as tightly as the first half was with the two teams swapping the lead seven times over the first six minutes. The Dolphins would eventually open a five point lead after a Jill Brady (Rockaway Beach, N.Y.) layup and they would match that lead two more times over the next nearly four minutes.
After Purchase sliced the Mount lead to just two points, Heesemann converted a lay in with 8:49 left and that would be the last scoring by either team for over three minutes until Jessie Domes nailed a pair of foul shots for the Panthers.
The Dolphins would maintain their lead until the 1:35 mark of the second half when Diaz drained another trey to move the home standing Panthers in front by a 52-51 score. The Dolphins went without a point over the final 2:35 of the contest, as Purchase scored the final seven points to earn the final 56-51 decision.
Mount Saint Vincent shot just 27.7-percent from the floor in the tilt and went without a field goal over the final 5:04. The Mount's final three points came from the line when Koerner made three straight with 2:45 remaining.
Heesemann netted 10 points and pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds for the Mount, while Percodani chipped in with nine points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Percodani also handed out four assists and Heesemann swatted three blocks.
Koerner finished with 10 points and Brady came off the bench to post 11 points, four rebounds and two steals for the Dolphins. Clarke chipped in with five points and a team-high three steals for the Mount.
Diaz paced Purchase with a game-high 14 points, including four three pointers. Overall Purchase made eight threes to six for Mount Saint Vincent.
The loss is the Mount's second straight overall and drops it to 8-6 and 5-3 in Skyline play. The Dolphins will be back on the floor again on Tuesday when they travel to Bard. Tip-off with the Raptors is slated for 7:00 p.m.
