Old Westbury – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Women's Basketball team had its season-long four game winning streak ended with a 68-64 loss at Old Westbury on Wednesday night. Three Dolphins
scored in double-figures with junior
Courtney Heesemann (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) leading the way with 18 points to go along with nine rebounds.
The game featured six ties and three lead changes and the largest lead of the contest was 11 points by the Panthers with 6:49 left in the second half. The two teams were deadlocked at 22 apiece at the half.
The first basket of the game was a Heesemann jumper nearly 4:30 into the contest. From there Old Westbury used a 15-4 run to pull ahead by nine, capped by a Pamela Robinson lay-up with 9:45 left before the intermission. Following the Robinson bucket, the Mount battled back to tie the score heading into halftime after a pair of Brittany Griffin (Suffern, N.Y.) free-throws with under a minute left in the period.
The two teams would trade the lead over the first two-plus minutes of the second half, before the Panthers jumped out to a 33-28 lead on five straight points from Robinson. The Dolphins tied the score at 33-33 on a Heesemann lay-in with 13:55 left and then again at 38-38 on a Karissa Koerner (Bay Shore, N.Y.) lay-up, but they would not be able to regain the lead.
Old Westbury (17-7, 13-4 Skyline) used a 13-2 run following the tie to take its largest lead of the game at 51-40 with 6:49 left in the contest. Mount Saint Vincent would get within four points four times in the final moments, but the Panthers would convert seven free-throws in the final 1:24 to secure the win.
Robinson scored 21 of her game-high 26 points in the second half, as she shot 4-10 from the floor and 13-21 from the free-throw line in the second half alone. For the game she finished 6-19 from the field and 14-23 from the charity stripe. She also finished with a game-high 11 rebounds and five assists.
Samantha Johnson chipped in with 15 points for Old Westbury and eight rebounds, while Josey Avery posted eight points and 10 boards.
Heesemann finished up 8-15 from the floor on her way to the team-high point total and also handed out two assists, swiped a steal and recorded a block. Koerner posted 11 points for the Dolphins and five rebounds and Jen Mocanu (Middletown, N.J.) recorded 10 points and a game-high six steals. Lauren Percodani (Staten Island, N.Y.) led all players with seven assists and chipped in eight points.
Neither team shot above 40-percent in the contest, but Old Westbury scored large advantages in two key categories. The Panthers outscored the Dolphins by 12 points from the free-throw line and held a 53-35 advantage on the backboards.
Although Old Westbury converted just 57.9-percent (22-38) from the free-throw line, Mount Saint Vincent really struggled, going just 10-26 for a 38.5-percent clip.
The loss drops Mount Saint Vincent to 14-10 overall on the season and to 13-4 in Skyline Conference play. The Dolphins will close out the regular season on Saturday when they host Farmingdale State at 3:00 p.m. Fans attending the game are encouraged to wear pink as the Dolphins will be taking part in the WBCA Pink Zone™ for breast cancer awareness. Also, following the game head coach Gerald Davis will be holding a book signing for his first publication titled 'Coaching With the Scriptures.'
